BIOGRAPHY

” My perfectionism is not holding me back. I see it as my best trait. ”

Anna Christina Eriksson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Both her parents are educated at Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Her father, Rolf Eriksson, was an advertising illustrator and graphic designer. During her teens, Anna got to practice at the advertising companies where she learned how to create logos and printed matter. Her father taught her perspective drawing and design.
Anna is an autodidact but has received an extensive artistic education from both her parents. Her father, Art Director Rolf Eriksson, was her artistic mentor until his death in 2015.

Her mother, painter Christina Rydfors, encouraged Anna to start painting in her early childhood. When Anna was only seven years old, she helped her mother to prepare canvases. Her mother taught her to mix oil colors and how to paint with different layers of colors like the old masters. Today Anna uses the same technique. She builds up the motifs with thin layers of paint and with invisible brush strokes. Through extreme accuracy and an eye for detail, she gives her paintings a photorealistic feeling. But the genre is called hyperrealism. The difference between the two different styles is that photorealism depicts a photo, while hyperrealism allows additional dimensions. Anna’s technique is a genuine craft and the paintings are characterized by her perfectionism.

Anna’s fascination for social realism led her to start an art project in 1996. For seven years she studied a subculture from the inside. The result was thousands of photos and life stories. She documented everything with a small Minox camera and processed the material in her studio. This solo project would later lead to her debut exhibition at Gallery 5 Kulturhuset Stockholm with two subsequent exhibitions at Fryshuset and The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

My paintings are the diary of my life, says Anna

Her method is to go into her projects 24 hours a day for months, to get to know the people and their environments. The result is a personal artistic experience. Almost like a diary. In this way, Anna opens a door for the viewer to the worlds that she depicts.

When Anna starts working with a work of art or an exhibition, she uses her enormous photographic material that she has picked up in the field. Each painting is a mix of several different photographs to achieve the expression or mood that Anna wants to present. With this method the paintings get a photographic impression but with additional dimensions, which constitutes Anna’s artistic brand.


Award: The Lorenzo Il Magnifico prize for painting, Florence Italy 2005


Collections:

“Per” (oil on canvas). Private collection U.S.A
“Springtime” (oil on canvas). Private collection New Zeeland
“Who am I?” (oil on canvas), Private collectoion Stockholm, Sweden
“Christer” (oil on canvas). Private collection Stockholm, Sweden
“Roffe” (oil on canvas). Private collection Stockholm, Sweden