CV

Elvira Bäfverfeldt Marklund
Born 1988 in Gothenburg, Sweden

Studies

Master of Fine Arts / Painting at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel 2015- 2018
Bachelor of Fine Arts / Painting at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel 2011-2015
Erasmus exchange at the University of Fine Arts in Barcelona / Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 2014
Gerlesborgs Konstskola, Gerlesborg 2008-2010

Group exhibitions

Kunst hilft Heilen, Museum of Medical Science, Kiel, April 2019-March 2020
Masters die Vierte, Anscharpark Haus 8, Kiel, July-August 2018
Kiel holen, Brunswiker Pavillion, Kiel, January 2018
Kiel holen, Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg, November 2017-January 2018
Dada 100 Jahre, Stettin Academy of Fine Arts, Stettin, April 2017
Das Museum in der Nussschale, Stadtmuseum Pinneberg, Pinneberg December 2016-January 2017
Nichts, Anscharpark Haus 8, January 2016
Bachelor Exhibition, Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Kiel 2015
Fassadenprojekt Neumünster, Neumünster 2013
Alumnes Creació, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 2014
Farbenfroh, Kunstraum B, Kiel 2013
Gerlesborgseleverna, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg 2010

Publications:

Publication for the exhibition Kiel Holen in Marburger Kunstverein, published by the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design 2018
Dada 100 Jahre, a publication for the group performance Dada 100 Jahre, published as a fanzine by the participators, 2017
NDR about the exhibition Das Museum in der Nussschale, December 2016:
Nichts. Eine Ausstellung der Malereiklasse, editor: Prof.in Antje Majewski, published by the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, 2016
Scholarships:
Brockmann-Preis, nomination and exhibition, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2019
Hanne and Prof. Peter Nagels Scholarship for artistic research during travel, 2016

Insights in efforts

Elvira Bäfverfeldt Marklund is a painter. However, her work also includes ink drawings and objects of organic forms in space, which can glow when touched. (The latter developed for an exhibition in the Medizin- und Pharmaziehistorischen Sammlung.)

Elvira Bäfverfeldt Marklund shows people in her more recent paintings without really portraying them. One can recognize the people, but the person steps back behind the idea of showing a person who shows himself in a state of transformation or fusion with something else.

Two current series are devoted to the motifs of man and animal.

“Tamers”, is the name of the latest series, which may refer to animal tamer, but seems to rather visualize a human journey discovering themselves.
We don’t see people in action who are facing an animal, but people who take over a part of the identity of an animal in a quiet way.

In her work “Asterion” (mixed media on steel 140 x 100 cm, 2018) the artist paints herself. Two horns on her head, the self-portrait transforms into an intermediate being, as if she wanted to feel an animal figure. She stands on her knees, her hands on a bright green-yellow, almost neon, illuminated floor, the background grey-blue. The color of the clothing flat and without structure. The work is filled with very bright light. -The title refers to the Mitotaurus myth. The horns, which can stand for strength, are here consciously connected with the body of a woman. The artist wants to break through clichés.

Also “The Falconer” (acrylic on steel, 140 x 100 cm, 2017) is the transformation of a human being. There is someone lying on the floor and the head is covered and constricted by a hood, which we normally see in falcons and which serves to train the animal and protect it from distractions. The sweater is covered with a pattern reminiscent of feathers. One hand, however, is in a glove, the falconer’s glove. Here the person combines both: falconer and falcon.

“Flying Childers” (mixed media on steel 120 x 100 cm, 2017) shows a human with a horse cap or fly mask. He is also wearing a sports shirt, both in yellow and red. The title of the work refers to a famous racehorse from the early 18th century. Flying Childers is the subject of several legends about speed. Here we see a rather slim person, who puts himself into this legend.

Animal room shows further works, in which humans are connected with animal attributes.

“Animal rooms 1-4” shows a man or a woman with a horse mask that makes almost the whole head disappear, a sheep or goat head, a feathered cap or a bouquet of antlers.
The space is not defined, but in Animal Rooms 2 the depicted woman disappears in a natural-looking textile structure. These structures appear again and again in the works of Elvira Bäfverfeldt Marklund. She also experiments with them in techniques other than painting. The surface is formed by feathers or fur, which leave a certain, also haptic, impression.

Space plays a subordinate role in all works. It only exists as a space of colour or light and cannot be identified. Surface and plasticity meet.
The material used by the artist is striking. She paints with acrylic paint on steel plates, which are untreated and weigh about 25 kg. The steel plates underline the clarity of the motifs, but also appear cool. The colouring is striking, the painting meticulously precise, photographic and three-dimensional.

The works, which are reduced to a few impressions in their representation and coloring, set the viewer’s thoughts in motion. What happens here, who do we see, why this transformation. And is the perspective that a human being approaches an animal right, or could it also be the other way round?