ANJA SALONEN
Anja Salonen (b. 1994, Los Angeles) is a visual artist whose work splices classical oil painting technique with the visual language of digital imagery, airbrush, electric light, and mythopoesis. Since attending RISD and CalArts, Salonen has merged interests in formal rendering and color theory with contemporary aesthetics and esoteric imaginaries, creating visions of clashing perspectives where unseen connections are realized and uncanny realms are rendered material. Her world-building process resembles digital collage, drawing from art historical, ecological, and biotechnological imagery to construct complex scenes of eco-horror and ecstatic sensuality. The paintings are scorched with the acidic colors of chemical contamination, paradoxical spatial relationships and porous representations of the figure, with bodies in slippery relation to their environments. Salonen has had several exhibitions in Los Angeles with galleries such as NOON Projects, In Lieu, and Five Car Garage. She has participated in exhibitions in Europe with Loyal Gallery and in New York with Kravets Wehby, Marvin Gardens, Fredericks & Freiser, Foxy Production, The Hole, and others. Her work was included in the Pacific Coast #127 edition of New American Paintings, and has been featured in Artillery, Hyperallergic, Juxtapoz, Elephant, and the New York Times.
