Hertha Hanson’s paintings span over both intuition and thoughtfulness. Imbedded in the oil paint is the registration of the passing of time. In the paintings different layers are memories and traces, as a recording of experiences from a person’s memory bank. The traces are not always visible, but they exist, and they shape and form what comes next. Nevertheless, Hanson’s process is highly spontaneous. The paintings are built up in layer after layer, brush stroke after brush stroke. The artists numbers her paintings and the shift in their different expression over time, tells a story of change and how one work leads on to the next. The work of Hertha Hanson speaks of a before and an after, as well as of a past and a present. Her paintings avoid every attempt of categorization and stagnation. The paintings do not give in to the eye’s willingness to search for stability, but rather they stay in constant movement within the framework of the stretchers.

Hertha Hanson, born 1980 in Lund, currently lives and works in Karlstad, Sweden. Hanson holds a MFA from Malmö Art Academy, 2008.

Hertha Hanson’s work has been shown at Lidköping Konsthall; Kristinehamns konstmuseum; Malmö Konstmuseum; Lunds konsthall; Luleå Konsthall; Rackstadmuseet, Arvika; Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup; and Envoy Enterprise in New York, among others.

Hertha Hanson has received the Eric and Inger Olson-Ekdahl Grant, Edstrandska Foundation Grant, Ellen Trotzig Grant, Fredrik Roos Grant, Bror Hjorth drawing Grant, among others.

Hertha Hanson’s work is in the permanent collection of The Public Art Agency Sweden; Malmö Konstmuseum; Karlstads kommun; Kristinehamns konstmuseum; Gotlands Museum; Stockholm Konst; Bror Hjorths Hus; Region Värmland; Region Halland; Lunds Konsthall; and Region Skåne among others. Public commissions include Region Stockholm and Region Värmland.