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Madeleine Strindberg

Place of birth Cologne
Country of residence United Kingdom

In her practice Strindberg gives form to visual anarchy, transforming found visual material into something more alive and challenging. Medical illustrations of the brain are transformed into large detailed paintings of menacing beauty. Newspaper images of war are subverted by transforming them into scenes from a comic-book misadventure inhabited by teddy-bear like soldiers in lurid neon glows. In doing so she draws attention to our perception of images, and to media constructions of political events, inviting us to re-examine assumptions and beliefs.

Madeleine Strindberg, born in Cologne, has achieved many prestige prizes and residences including the Jerwood Prize for painting in 1998, an Abbey Rome Scholarship at the British School at Rome in 1996 and was artist in residence at the National Gallery in 1989.

She has exhibited in many group shows including New Contemporaries at the ICA, John Moore’s Biennale, Liverpool, Whitechapel Open, 1998 and The New Anatomist, Wellcome Trust, London, 1999.

Internationally Madeleine shows annually at Museo D’Arte Bargellini, Pieve Centro, Bologna, Italy and made video work for the Sharjah International Biennale in 2003.
She has also been involved in site specific installations on Leicester Square, London and within the Brighton festival at St Joseph’s and St Mary Magdalene churches.

Madeleine Strindberg now finds herself expressing issues that are both personal to her and fellow artists. Her current body of work reflects the need to have her and others voice heard. She finds herself exasperated by the obstacles in position, preventing her from creating work.

The work showing within this exhibition was produced last summer during an unsettling time, resulting in the risk of eviction from her studio.

The paintings elude linear interpretation. Each of the large canvas contains multiple platforms on which to hold one’s eye to. Each canvas has been reworked after previously being discarded. This use of abandoned structures refers to the abject.

The idiosyncratic mix of styles testifies to the current vitality of painting and shows it ability to re-engage with an emotional charge, packed with energy both visceral and irreverent. It is however the deadpan humour which cuts through the darkest moments that leaves a lasting impression.

Exhibitions Start Your Collection 2008!, 01.Aug - 20.Sep.08, Contemporary Art Projects, 00' Nature Part 2, 15.May - 14.Jun.08, Contemporary Art Projects, Gyre and Gimble: 10 Painters, 14.Nov - 14.Dec.07, Blyth Gallery, Start Your Collection 2007!, 01.Aug - 30.Sep.07, Contemporary Art Projects, Just look at yourself!, 22.Feb - 08.Apr.07, Contemporary Art Projects, Summer exhibition 2006, 17.Aug - 03.Sep.06, Contemporary Art Projects, Among the Believers, 17.Sep - 31.Oct.04, Contemporary Art Projects