Markus Åkesson — À propos — Slash Paris

Markus Åkesson (b. 1975, SWE) creates figurative paintings with a burdensome and poetic atmosphere. He invites us to a journey through the dense Scandinavian forests where the fauna and the flora stand alongside the humans’ realm. The dusky-colored aquatic and vegetal elements, the muddy peat lands and the small ponds deep in the woods, form a hymn to Nature and to Nordic legends.

At nighfall, the boundaries between dreams and reality shade off. It is this indistinct interval that Markus Åkesson likes to explore. Slowly, he takes us to the hereafter, in a metaphorical and psychical movement of catabasis. Through his paintings, Åkesson revisits the Orphic theme of the descent to the Underworld. By crossing the limits of the living world, the protagonists in his artworks defy their fears and the darkness. This initiatory trip appears to be an actual rite of passage, scattered with physical hardship and spiritual questioning.