petra börner
Off Set – Set Off, the title of her upcoming solo exhibition at Skitsehandlen, nods to her way of working. Working with changing tempo, confident lines spill across colour in looping gestures, while paint is pressed or printed onto paper to reveal spontaneous results. Elements slightly askew and out of sync sit together in curious constellations, as if not quite supposed to be there.
about the artist
Petra Börner (b. 1973) has worked as an artist and illustrator for over twenty years, driven by a lifelong devotion to drawing, painting and making. Drawn to the line from an early age, her practice unfolds as an intuitive exploration into a parallel world—at once odd, powerful and poetic. Often incorporating found materials, she follows a fluid process where repetition and subtle shifts in colour and form shape the emotional tone, with the physical act of making central to her work.
With narratives growing or filling out space and the borrowing of botanical elements, there’s a presence of hope but also feelings of despair towards the cycle of life.
Raised in Skåne, Sweden, Börner moved to London to study fashion at Central Saint Martins while developing her illustration practice. She has since collaborated internationally, with commissions from clients including The New York Times, Albert Bonniers Förlag, Chanel, Apple Inc., Penguin Random House, and Victoria and Albert Museum. Last year saw her signature artwork featured throughout the Artist’s Series ‘Anatomy of Flowers’, a collaboration with Finnish fashion and lifestyle brand Marimekko.
Petra Börner. Photo: Rebecca Reid.
petra börner x marimekko
The Swedish-born, London-based artist Petra Börner has embarked on a collaboration with Marimekko, allowing the artist's works to extend beyond paper and onto textiles. The collaboration with Marimekko is a natural extension of the artist's practice, which already spans from works on paper to ceramics, stoneware, and site-specific art.
Petra Börner's images are filled with blends of human beings and plants, where branches transform into arms, and flower buds take on faces. Humans become plants, and plants turn into mythological creatures with eyes staring back at us. Petra Börner's lines themselves resemble cuttings or roots, seeming to grow in both length and thickness.
Just as there are no clear boundaries between humans and plants in her works, it makes sense that the pieces also shift materials — from paper to stoneware to textiles.
Petra Börner's work is driven by the same interest in colour compositions as seen in the works of the French-born artist Sonia Delaunay and the German-born artist Anni Albers, as well as by the same fascination with the wild, yet ornamented beauty of nature found in the English artist William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. Marimekko has drawn motifs from Petra Börner's sketchbooks, where the artist has experimented with new compositions and colour combinations. These compositions are now on view at Skitsehandlen.
