Sleeping Beauty

I’m almost afraid to mention Anna Finney now. Together with Johan Nobell she has become a symbol for the kind of young artist that gets hyped to fast to soon by greedy galleries who wants to make a quick buck.

I still think she is worth a closer look though. She was first seen as a realist, but most critics seem to have realised that this is hardly the case. She might have elements of realism in her art, but she is much more than that. She has been called a symbolist and a surrealist too, but in the end it’s just words. And Finney’s art goes beyond those words. It is what it is.

She is obviously obsessed with the concept of sleeping. Her most recent exhibition shows people sleeping in different places and positions. Before that she made a series of paintings entitled Famous Bedrooms with paintings of, eeh… famous beds. The sleep she paints isn’t death, but it’s certainly rather close. The people in her paintings are taking a break from life itself.

In my humble opinion, and trying to ignore the hype, she is actually very good. She stands comfortably on the shoulders of earlier great painters and reaches out. For something new? Perhaps, but I won’t go that far just yet.