Rita Lundqvist combines a minimalist form with an intriguing narrative. Girls have played a central part in her paintings since the mid 1980’s. They act alone or in groups, or they observe something only they can see or experience. They let us know that they know more, see more, feel more, than what we do as viewers, as if they carry a deep secret. The composition is almost austere, a flat picture plan is most often divided by a straight line at the horizon. Perhaps is there a tree, or a house, or a whole in the ground, giving a point of reference to the figurants in the painting. The coloring is subdued with its earthy and soft tones. Rita Lundqvist masters the quiet language, her artistry witnessing of the attention drawn to the one speaking with a low voice. The directness of her flat foreground is always elegantly paired with the depth of the possibilities in her mysteriously charged worlds.

Rita Lundqvist, born 1953 in Hässleholm, currently lives and works in Stockholm. Rita Lundqvist holds a MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, 1985.

Rita Lundqvist’s work has been shown at Malmö Konstmuseum; Liljevalchs, Stockholm; Artipelag, Värmdö; Norrköpings Konstmuseum; Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Helsinki Art Hall; The living Art Museum, Reykjavik; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and Lars Bohman Gallery, Stockholm, among others.

Rita Lundqvist has received grants and scholarships such as the Barbro & Holger Bäckströms Award; the Edstrand Foundation Art Prize and the Tore A Jonasson Foundation Scholarship.

Rita Lundqvist’s work is in the permanent collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Göteborgs konstmuseum; Malmö Konstmuseum; Borås Konstmuseum; Norrköpings Konstmuseum; the Public Art Agency Sweden; the Tore A Jonasson's Collection, Stockholm, among others.