18.5.2024 – 16.6.2024

My paintings can be placed in traditional genres of painting, such as landscapes and interiors, but the situations depicted in them move between the realistic and unreal worlds of surrealism. In my paintings, humans are only present through their absence.

In my works, natural elements influence spaces built by humans and, on the other hand, objects and things created by humans in nature. My art is about interfaces. One interface, then, is the interface between a regulated society founded by humans and natural life. Ultimately, however, the work is created in the viewing experience at the interface between the work and the viewer.

I recognise features of the language of surrealism in the expression of my works, even though I do not necessarily consider myself a surrealist. Traditionally, surrealism has been thought of as an examination of the human mind. But I think surrealism is about being outside the mind, about objects – man being one of the objects – and about encountering these objects and interacting with the world.

Marko Backman