Leif Engström's solo show 'Natten vilar mot balkongdörren' runs from 5 October 2024 to 5 January 2025 at Skellefteå Konsthall.
In several of his paintings, a landscape emerges in twilight, in evening or morning light, evoking a familiar feeling for the viewer. Here, there is a kinship with Romanticism, where landscapes, time, and weather often served as symbols for human inner states. Although Engström's paintings are rooted in his own observations of environments, in a kind of realism, he adapts reality to the visual language he has developed. The simple contrasts combined with a subdued overall tone create harmony, and the stylized decorative borders that often frame or form a central shape in the image break the lifelike reality and create a boundary between the painting and the viewer’s world.
