Foliage 1 Painting

Mikael Liljander paints since graduating from Beckmans School of design in 1989. He lives and works alternately in Stockholm and Gotland, Sweden. Whatever he creates, he usually relates to concepts such as chaos and order, a slide on the scale between representation and high abstraction. He considers his images from a spiritual aspect but also places importance on a painting as a purely aesthetic object. “It should be clearly brilliant on a wall with other paintings”. The artistic process is experimental in terms of technique and great importance is placed on the result being felt immediately and naturally. “Paints a lot. Fail, fail again, fail better. And then come the moments when the hand is controlled without the intellect being involved. Pictures emerge that surprise me.” Privately, he is involved in gathering cultural practitioners, including by holding 10 studios, arranging exhibitions and ensuring that cultural practitioners have meeting places in their part of the city.