147X110cm / 2018 

100X100cm / 2018  

155X78cm / 2018 

170X100 / 2018 

135X85cm / 2018 

135X60cm / 2017   

30X29cm / 2017 

100X100cm / 2016

200X95cm / 2016  

100X90cm / 2016 

150X150cm / 2016  

180X130cm / 2016  

40X30cm / 2016  

80X51cm / 2016 

40X30cm / 2012  

60X40cm / 2011 

190X90cm / 2018 

100X100cm / 2018 

155X78cm / 2016 

170X100cm / 2018 

135X85cm / 2018 

135X60cm / 2017 

29X29cm / 2017

69X32cm / 2017

30X29cm / 2017  

108X84cm / 2017 

40X40cm / 2016  

126X88cm / 2016 

100X100cm / 2016 

180X140cm / 2016 

150X150 / 2016

80X51/ 2016 

40X30cm / 2012 

77X37cm / 2011

Being a passionate sculptor, I always carry a sketchbook in my pocket, in which I outline small objects. I gave them the abstract but euphonic name Rugla Swepum. I used the scribblings from this collection, scaled them up on aluminum boards and then painted them out with thick, bright-colored varnish.

The first thing viewers often notice in the work of Rugla Swepum are the bright colors. But if you look more closely, the details of the artwork begin to emerge. Lines, constructions, shapes and figures. Beautiful and stylish, chaotic, abstract and yet somehow still familiar. Flowing lines, radical forms, brutal cuts, breaks and fragments all come together to ultimately stir up a question within the viewer: What is this? What am I actually seeing here? Is it a face? A spaceship? A dancer? Or is this a mountain—maybe the Alps?

I created the paintings of Rugla Swepum in the everyday movements of life. The inspiration behind them weren’t just gathered out of thin air, they were dug up from the depths of the soil of life. Over the past few years, I’ve scribbled in my sketchbook, gone through creative processes and worked hard. Yet along the way, I also made new friends and solved problems. I jumped into a river with a backflip, I endured crises, and I fell in love. I felt the depths of despair and I found courage again. I doubted. I trusted. I arrived. I broke up and started over again. 

Life can be a chaotic series of experiences. One moment you can follow happiness that runs like a golden thread through the carpet of life, and the next moment something pulls the carpet out from underneath you and leaves you in pain. How is it these extremes can fit together?

I believe we find beauty in life the more we are able to see and enjoy the whole picture—extremes and everything between. My hope is that viewers will see the various works in Rugla Swepum as an opportunity to examine their own lives. In the paintings, elements intertwine, occasionally squeezing themselves in and cutting structures apart. Layer lines up with layer. Color sets itself apart from color. A new form arises, a new contrast, a shape made of fragments. Together they all add up. Together it is not round, not whole, not simple. It is more than that—it is complete. In life, some things simply cannot be intertwined. They remain paradoxical, broken, unconnected, next to each other … and yet when viewed altogether, they are still whole.