4484_184112925262_1175621_n

Agape Charmani for Art-Sheep

Painter Karl Persson‘s work is full of horrific scenes, grotesque characters and extravagant expressions. Furnished with hyperrealistic precision, Persson’s paintings are mysterious, dark explorations of the real, the surreal and the human mentality.

Through fear, sexual tension and desire, the painter transforms the human being into a creature with animal instincts and tendencies, a creature whose emotions are stronger than its mind. This cruel world though is not a world of violence as Persson’s subjects seem more driven by their own passions and the rage they express is towards their own self.

“My intellect doesn’t come into play when I am channeling something subconsciously. There is plenty of time for interpretation after a painting is finished. Whenever I look at my finished paintings it is like analysing a dream – deciphering my personal symbolic language. Although there is obviously some calculated thought behind things like compositional aesthetics, I still try to keep these decisions relatively instinctive. I find this approach far more fulfilling than when I have injected some preconceived concept into an image, which has often consequently become either stale or too obvious,” he writes on his Facebook page.

4484_184112915262_7525080_n

4484_184112935262_3499617_n

67752_10150295939975263_2623475_n

73472_10150295939295263_2436468_n

10556459_10154361807925263_716160380075904852_n

10562945_10154361798940263_7734905546588504670_n

4484_184112845262_4945_n

4484_184112850262_5968331_n

4484_184112855262_460057_n

4484_184112860262_1030325_n

4484_184112865262_6245896_n

4484_184112875262_7040087_n

4484_184112885262_4311619_n

4484_184112900262_4908849_n

4484_184112905262_3768360_n