Björn Runquist was born in Stockholm, Sweden, grew up in New York, and spent his high school years in France, before returning to the United States for college. Upon completion of college he moved to London, England. After four years in London and receiving a Master’s degree from Kings College, University of London, he returned to the U.S. and made his home for the last thirty-five years in Kent,Connecticut, summering in Clark Island, Maine, where he is now a full-time resident. He has work in the permanent collection of the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine, and has exhibited widely in venues from Maine to Florida.
“I love the physical, sensual, nature of paint as a means for exploring how we look at ordinary things. For me it is very much a process of ‘making’ in response to that looking. After ten years of abstract work, drawing from images that are largely ‘imagined,’ the return to landscape painting finds me typically drawn repeatedly to images of what is most familiar around us. I choose these images because I have found that within the commonplace there is really often ‘all the wonder one needs.’ These river paintings, part of an extended study of water reflections, arose from my 20 years of living on the banks of the Housatonic river in Connecticut, where it joins the Macedonia Brook. Where two rivers join is said to be a holy place. I think any place that one learns to see and love is a holy place.”
“Runquist’s work is highly original, filled with vitality, wit and beauty.”
– Carolyn Lanchner, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY.
Website
http://www.bjornrunquist.com
