ARTIST INTERVIEW: Kristoffer axén
Kristoffer Axen
Please introduce yourself. What initially sparked your interest in becoming an artist? How have you developed your passion for art into a career?
I was born in Stockholm, Sweden. As I child I was very interested in film and wanted to be a filmmaker, but because I enjoyed working more solitary, this lead me into photography. And this in turn led me to painting when I noticed that a main part of my influence came from painters, and that I was missing out by not also working in this medium.
You are both a photographer and a fine artist, has your photography work influenced your paintings?
Definitely. Both mediums basically try to reach that same underlying mood and atmosphere, but me starting to paint also came from a wish to work with more tactile materials.
The Beach
Why are the subjects in your paintings 'out of focus'? When did you develop your style, and how do you see it developing further in the future?
Details distract to much, telling a different story than what I’m interested in. I rather want the sharpness to be in the texture or in the abstract elements. Too much detail takes away from the silence of the image. So the wish for a certain kind of softness has always been there. But I see myself incorporating more disruptive and abstract elements in the future.
Herd Instinct
Why do you find people fascinating to paint/photograph? What are the characteristics of an interesting subject to capture?
I’m interested in people in art in the sense that they work as a stand-in for an underlying psychological state or mood. A certain shape of the body, a specific look. In this way the figure helps to tell the underlying story.
Ritual 1 and 2
What initially inspired your most recent painting? Describe your creative process from start to finish.
My latest painting ‘Second Thought 1’ builds on previous paintings in that I wanted the narrative to be suggestive and that the juxtaposition of the two images triggers the imagination in a compelling way. I’ve also worked with incorporating texture differently.
The process is quite similar in most of my paintings. I work from a photograph, often a composite of found images, personal snapshots and close-ups of various textures. There is no illustrative, overtly conceptual, idea as the base but more of a subconscious feeling of knowing that ‘ok this is what I want to paint’. When that feeling is there I need to trust it. Then technically I work on a stained canvas in a lighter tone that I want to show through in various parts, with a basic value-sketch at the bottom. I then build it up with about two or three layers in oils, distorting certain sections with palette-knifes and other tools as I go along, sometimes scratching of parts with a knife or sand paper. I want that balance between the noise and the realism.
Second Thought
Your paintings embody a cool-tone colour pallette. How does your use of colour reflect the narrative? Why do you enjoy using cool tones?
The cool tones for me makes the image more distant, more dreamlike. They ring truer to me more than a painting with a warm palette.
Untitled
What motivates you to paint? Where do you feel most inspired?
I don’t know really, there is some itch there. The motivation is of course to always get better, to reach that very rare moment when I can say ‘ok, this is now close to something true’.
Ritual 3
Who is your greatest artist inspiration? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?
There are many. Painters like Alexander Tinei, Mamma Andersson, Michael Borremans, photographers like Daido Moriyama or Chieko Shiraishi, filmmakers like Béla Tarr and Lee Changdong. All of them I would ask how their daily routine is set-up, being that I’m obsessed with that for the moment. It always feels like I’m wasting time .
Describe your most memorable moment as an artist. What have been your greatest achievements so far, and what are your aspirations for the future?
My first inclusion in a major exhibition with the ‘regeneration2’-traveling exhibition just after finishing photography-school. That was a great encouragement. And also when painting and seeing the improvements that I was looking for but struggling with, and then building on that - which has been a recent development.
Why do you think art is important in society?
That’s a hard question. I guess it speaks a kind of language that is not found anywhere else, easily forgotten but vital for existing.
