PARIS.- Andréhn-Schiptjenko announces Swedish painter Sixten Sandra Österberg’s first solo exhibition in Paris: FLOOD. The opening will take place on Saturday 6 September 2025 from 4-8pm in the presence of the artist and the exhibition will run through Saturday 11 October 2025.

Sixten Sandra Österberg is best-known for her portrayal of bodies where figures both emerge and dissolve on the canvas. In this constant pulsion between realism and abstraction, her portraits often represent the community she is part of, while bringing together elements of classical painting. In FLOOD, Österberg continues the exploration of these themes, this time drawing inspiration from the grand compositions of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Victorian movements, with a particular interest in their depiction of long hair.

Similarly to Österberg, Pre-Raphaelites aimed to capture their world honestly and truthfully, as opposed to the promotion of the ideal as exemplified in the work of Raphael. In Victorian urban centres, it was the growing presence of diverse cultures and ethnic minorities that attracted the attention of many Pre-Raphaelite artists. Women from working-class Irish communities became early sources of inspiration, with portraits of red-haired figures serving as the emblem of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Over the centuries, long hair has held a variety of shifting and gendered meanings. For female bodies, long lustrous hair has generally been considered attractive across cultures. Many mythical female characters are also associated with long hair to communicate their purity. For the Pre- Raphaelites, long hair symbolised a woman's crowning glory and a reflection of her inner passion.

Österberg reinterprets the motif of long hair through the lens of her own subcultural context. Unlike the long cascading tresses seen on the Pre-Raphaelite subjects, Österberg’s long hair is messier, darker, freer. In The Kiss, hair flows over a back during an intimate moment, recalling Hayez’s 1859 painting of the same title, one of romanticism’s most iconic works. Long hair remains central but carries different connotations – hair, almost textile-like, as a garment and a marker of identity.

Although inspired by classical portraiture, Österberg’s paintings have the instantaneity of contemporary snapshots taken by a phone whipped out of a pocket only moments ago to capture an intimate scene – a couple kissing passionately without noticing its surrounding, another resting nonchalantly on an arm chair, or embracing in a burgeoning weed field. The subjects never return the viewer’s gaze, each scene unfolding with quiet authenticity.

These feelings of spontaneity and closeness to the subjects that one might feel looking at Österberg’s works are further enhanced by the way these realistic scenes disintegrate into soft abstraction. It leaves the viewer with the sensation of a blurred memory or a fragmented dream – something deeply personal, altered by one’s mind, where reality floats and colours burst.

In contrast to a historical approach, Österberg’s extreme cropping, that focuses on a single detail while abstracting the surrounding the scene, is also distinctly contemporary. It imbues the paintings with a dynamic and cinematographic quality. The viewer is only catching a glimpse of the larger picture – an expression, a gesture, or, in Year around friend, toes pushing a leather boot to help it off. It is these small yet realistic details that characterise Österberg’s practice. Her work is infused with subcultural markers, and speaks to her community through the tender and affectionate gaze of her own social environment.

Depicting a couple from their backs only, the diptych Carpenter and Dreamer puts once again classical portraiture to the test. The mirrored composition of the diptych draws attention to the long hair of the two protagonists and the adornments on their lower backs, a large tattoo and a jewelled G-string. These elements serve as expressions of personal style and individuality, while also evoking rebelliousness and sexual freedom. The femininity and purity of the long hair are decisively shattered by this diva carrying a knife in a sheaf.

Through the celebration of long hair and the realist representation of diversity and subculture, Österberg creates her own 21st-century Pre-Raphaelite muses – not passive ideals, but fluid and fierce figures charged with agency, style, and defiance. With this exhibition, Österberg floods the canvas with a bold new beauty.