Kerstin Odal

Oldal is a Swedish artist from Stockholm. She has studied Form and Design and draws her inspiration from the Pop Culture, the Street Art, Art Deco, Byzantine Art and Fashion. She works by creating texture and layers of material, looking for the immediate impact of pure shapes and lines. In her stylistic paintings she mixes collage, texts, acrylic with copper, gold-and silver foils. She likes urban architecture, walking around in the city, photographing, especially Stockholm, her hometown – she also loves fashion and designers, particularly Chanel, Dior and Saint-Laurent, sketching dresses and silhouettes, but also planes, cars and trains inspired by iconic images from the past found in old magazines from the 40´, 50´and 60´.

She works like street artists, with collage and pochoirs, that she draws and cut, applying them on canvas, repeating procedures and pictures, changing colors and compositions, sizes and the materials. She also uses the pictorial codes of Street Art and Pop Art through urban symbols like rats and buildings, cultural icons like famous actresses and actors, symbols of the industrial and postmodern welfare, and by adding quotes and comments revealing a humorous or critical touch, borrowing from the comics.