Martin Ålund is a Swedish visual artist, born in 1967 in Skelleftå, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. He was educated at the Royal Institute of Art, and has received many prizes and scholarships, including the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Scholarship. He is represented in several museums, and in public as well as private collections. He exhibits frequently, nationally and internationally, in solo and group exhibitions.
"At first, the painterly process is purely intuitive, with a focus on the body in a physical, gesture-based movement. The paint flows, runs, splatters. A cascade of blinding light that has no shape and simply aims to be its own colour.
Gradually, observation, thought, knowledge and reflection make their way into the process. The canvases are eyed from every angle and paint is wiped away and added on with rags, brushes and hands. The paintings seem to virtually paint themselves through the distinct characteristics of the material itself.
Motifs and landscapes emerge, insinuate and reveal themselves. I often paint over and start from the beginning. Or sand away at layers and expose time in structures and line play. Layer upon layer of attempts and assertions.
When the painting is finished it bears all the contradictory and complex perspectives and layers in itself."
Martin Ålund