Sienna

Cecilia Edefalk’s work, almost always a serial exploration of a single motif, is distinguished by frequent experiments with duplication, scale, and proportion. All of the artist’s paintings emerge from a relationship to other modes of representation. For Edefalk, sculpture, notably historic statuary, has been a catalyst that she has consistently reinterpreted in order to reflect on experiences that bind her to a particular work. At one point in her career, she traveled to Italy, where she became fascinated by a Quattrocento statue, a polychrome wood angel for an Annunciation. This led her to create a series of paintings, including the haunting portrait Sienna. Although Edefalk considers this an independent composition, it marks the close of the series and aims to capture the mystical qualities she prized in the statue.