With a sultry and sharp-edged sense of aesthetics, Mikael Altersten creates a vividly contemporary dialog in paint. Smoldering male and female figures hint at an inner passion hidden beneath the surface, partially obscured behind a thick, carefully constructed haze of pigment. Working in acrylic and collage on canvas with a square format, Altersten’s creations are bold and graphically arresting, combining sensually posed figures, enigmatic text, and color saturated grids and forms. The artist strives to keep his works creatively his own, and so his collaged photos are taken only by himself or specially commissioned to be shot by other professional photographers. As he passionately searches for the soul of art, Altersten concentrates on creating works which bridge cultural boundaries while remaining true to his own personal visual language of spiritual and sensual mystique.
A former apprentice of Swedish artist Hans-Göran Eriksson, Mikael Altersten currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. He exhibits widely throughout Europe and now in the United States.