Issa Salliander

ABOUT

Issa Salliander was born in Stockholm in 1984. She moved to Oxford, England, as a young teenager and it is there where she began her art studies under her mentor Paul Saville, an Oxford University lecturer and known art teacher. She has a MFA from City & Guilds of London Art School where she won many awards including a scholarship and The De Laszlo Portrait Prize. She lives and works in London.

She has been featured in several group exhibitions internationally, including Faces at Leo Gallery, Shanghai, Kandlhofer Art Collective, Vienna, and Parafin Gallery, London.

Her first solo exhibition ’Til Our Shadows Cease to Meet took place in 2010 at OSL Contemporary, which is were she first debuted her wildly popular Cowboy’s Lament series of paintings.

Since she’s had solo exhibitions in Vienna at Galerie Kandlhofer, and in Mexico City with Michelangelo Bendandi, formerly of Frieze Art Fairs.

In March 2020 she opened the collaboration project Virginia Sins in New York City with the known American artist/muse/activist Natalie White on the subject of artist/muse/artist. White has sat for Salliander on numerous projects including her series Magnum to the Brain. This was Salliander’s first exhibition that included photography and installation. 2021 has mainly been spent in Berlin making new paintings as an artist in residence.

Salliander’s practice explores the drama and humour found in the battle of good versus evil, and the conflict between life and death. Through the calculated ambiguity of her subjects, she makes her audience question their preconceived notions of this dichotomy. She references history of art as much as Rock ’n Roll irreverence and popular culture. Her large-scale works entice the viewer into its own world, and are at the same time mesmerising and challenging. Using subtle humour and a sprinkle of ambiguity, she immediately connects with her audience. She represents a new and interesting voice in contemporary art.

SELECTED WORKS