Colouring through grief

The paintings of Swedish born, Cyprus-based abstract painter Carolina Alotus (b. 1970) are luminous, fantastical arenas in which beauty and harmony negotiate fiercely with chaos. Her compositions are active and energetic, sparking visual tension from unexpected relationships between colors, forms and textures, and from the feverish juxtaposition of seemingly disparate mediums and techniques. Alotus came to abstraction from an established career as a figurative painter, specializing in lush, dreamlike, large-scale reproductions of flowers.

Her transition to an abstract method driven entirely by intuition allows her total freedom in her studio. Her idiosyncratic visual language blends the traditions of Gestural Abstraction, Street Art, Art Brut, Action Painting, and Pop Art. Self-taught as a painter, Alotus guards against overthinking when it comes to the content of her work. “I find that the creative force inside me flows freely when I shut off the mind chatter and paint with my heart,” she says. She advises viewers, “Go with your gut feeling and allow yourself to be swept away by the colors and the brush strokes. The colors have a life of their own.” Despite occasional references in her work to numbers, letters, or other recognizable imagery, Alotus says, “I don’t consciously put symbolism into my paintings. I may see one thing in a picture, while someone else sees something entirely different. Both interpretations are equally correct.”

Alotus has exhibited throughout Europe and in the United States, including at Gallery Kim Anstensen, Sweden; the Royal Collage of Art, Kensington, UK; Schombiurg Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; and at the Cyprus International Art Exhibition, Nicosia, Cyprus. Her work in included in numerous private collections, and was featured The Rebel Collection, the first Saatchi Art catalogue of 2020.