Lotta Ingman's canvases are large enough to capture the physical gesture of a painter, and call before us the 'arena' of action paintings macho stance. This Freudian scene of unconscious struggle is then neatly sidestepped, and replaced with wholly different histories. Lotta Ingman paintings use a discrete set of marks and moves that weave and shuttle across her canvasses. She liberates elements of composition or colour from renowned paintings and reuses them in her paintings, commenting directly on painting history. Instead of the gallant brushwork of a Kline or the manic rhythm of a Lee Krasner. Lotta Ingman's brushwork reminds you of the world of textile, both in the image, and in the fact of the carefully bricolaged brushes that she makes for some of the paintings. Strong associations to fabric take over from the history of art's dominance of painterly marks; plaid or Gingham, Shaker quilts or pinstripe, all appear with their own history and connections.
In this simple strategy, the artists' existential struggle is replaced by the history of Work, evoking canvas weaving sweat shops, colonial histories of export and homely crafts. But the work is always an affirmation and reconciliation of the past and possibilities of Painting.