Onna Wallman

I am interested in an expansion of the mind and being through art.

I build my pieces on layers. I create layers and paint them over. Sometimes I will scratch or tear out parts of the old layers to make them visible again. Layers are like chapters in a persons life. We build our lives, creating, filling the canvas with life and beauty. At certain points in life we need to paint it all over to be able to start a new chapter, no matter how much beauty we’ve attained or created in the present layer. We need to paint it over to be able to grow. In a finished artwork all the layers are there underneath, even the ones you cannot see. It is an organic process. To me art making is more about the process and less about the product. In art I attempt to make something intangible (the process) into something material (the painting). This can feel or seem like a paradox in itself.

The process of the art will continue once I am finished with my painting. It continues on the wall where it is hung, sending out inspiration or energy, it continues inside the person who views it, evoking thoughts and feelings. Sometimes the process continues with me destroying, burying or burning the piece or hiding it in a cupboard for years. (These are obvio...

I started painting at upper secondary school studying the aesthetics program focusing on art. New to the allure of art I tried to paint in a style that was quite true to life, the opposite of abstract. During this program I found a love for photography, a form of art which made it possible to express what I wanted and needed at the time, using shapes and subjects from the physical world around me.

After upper secondary school I worked as an apprentice for the photographer of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. Here I especially fell in love with dance photography, attempting to catch something intangible (dance) in the shape of something material (a photograph).

After photography my interest in art veered towards art history and theory. In 2012 I graduated from Stockholm university with a degree of Bachelor of Arts having studied dance and theatre studies, cultural theory and history, project management for art projects etc. After this I continued the theoretical art studies with a Master of Arts in Archive, Library and Museum Studies at Uppsala university, graduating in 2015. Here I wrote a thesis called Dance as archive material: A semiotic study of dance records (you can find it here: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/ge...