Lydia Ericsson Wärn, Painter II, 2024, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm / 16 x 19.5 inches. courtesy of the artist, Meredith Rosen Gallery and OTP Copenhagen.
Living in a time that is supposedly “after the end of history,” necessitates borrowing from its annals constantly. One eye forward, one back. To be resolutely present is a near impossible task, as we’ve evolved into a state of near-constant motion. Lydia Ericsson Wärn opens up an atemporal vortex, allowing her compositions to absorb moments from the past while pointing to the medium’s “self-reflexivity. We are painting about painting itself.” As such, she mines craft and material legacies while pursuing her own image with the force of immediacy.
“I’m interested in painting itself, in doing it as often as possible without needing to reinvent something or be stuck in this space of coming up with what to paint.” As such, Ericsson Wärn attaches her subject to the same supine position, part self portrait, part something else entirely... “I think about it as a scaffolding, or the playing field in which painterly inspiration is taking place.” She goes on, “what I’m interested in is repetition.” With Painter II, Ericsson Wärn maintains her plot, depositing the figure into a swell of variable blue shades. Featured, too, are rectangular forms in pinks and reds, suggestive of disappearing floor mats, an early stage painting, and an indiscernible brick-like object. The artist’s studio-as-site is the grounding framework, as Ericsson Wärn explodes the confines of the productive space.
— Reilly Davidson
Lydia Ericsson Wärn, Painter II, 2024, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm / 16 x 19.5 inches. courtesy of the artist, Meredith Rosen Gallery and OTP Copenhagen.
Lydia Ericsson Wärn, Painter II, 2024 [detail], oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm / 16 x 19.5 inches. courtesy of the artist, Meredith Rosen Gallery and OTP Copenhagen.
Lydia Ericsson Wärn, Painter II, 2024, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm / 16 x 19.5 inches. courtesy of the artist, Meredith Rosen Gallery and OTP Copenhagen.
Interior Alphabet, installation view, 2024, OTP Copenhagen. courtesy of the artist and OTP Copenhagen.
Reilly Davidson is a New York-based, Seattle-born writer and curator. She has contributed texts to KALEIDOSCOPE, Artforum, and The Brooklyn Rail, as well as a host of stateside and international galleries. Her curatorial work has been presented in venues across the United States.
Lydia Ericsson Wärn (b. 1994, Stockholm; SE) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. The artist is a graduate of the Hfbk Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, where she studied under the supervision of Amy Sillman and Monika Baer. Recent exhibitions include: Interior Alphabet at OTP Copenhagen (Copenhagen; DK), Center at Meredith Rosen Gallery (New York City, NY; US), Predella at Neue Alte Brücke (Frankfurt am Main; DE), Of the One in the Many at ISSUES (Stockholm; SE).
