In the auction painting "Waterboys" (2023), Martin Wickström brings together urban architecture and an enigmatic waterscape in a composition marked by strong contrasts and a cinematic presence. Against a dark facade punctuated by illuminated windows, a flat-bottomed boat carrying figures dressed in white emerges from intensely green water surrounded by lush vegetation. The painting demonstrates Wickström’s skill in bringing the rigid geometry of the city into dialogue with the organic forms of nature.

The brightly illuminated words ST SONG paraphrase the title of Wickström’s mother’s favourite song. She passed away while he was working on the exhibition. The letters “ST” may also be read as a reference to “last” and “first”. The boat’s journey, in turn, can be interpreted as a tribute to his mother’s passage along the River Styx to Hades.

Wickström’s artistic practice is characterised by a distinctive visual language in which photorealistic precision meets the aesthetics of Pop Art and visual references drawn from popular culture. With a keen sensitivity to colour, light and composition, he transforms familiar motifs into images that balance recognition with a sense of estrangement.

"Waterboys" was exhibited in "Last Song (Based on True Events)" at GSA Gallery in Stockholm in 2023, Wickström’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition presented new works connected to personal experience, memory and the changes that shape our lives. Loss and generational transition formed the biographical backdrop to the presentation, while the title pointed to the relationship between lived experience and artistic expression.

Martin Wickström was born in 1957 in Finspång, Sweden, and lives and works in Stockholm. He studied at the Gerlesborg School of Fine Art from 1977 to 1981 and at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm from 1982 to 1987. Since his debut in 1983, he has exhibited regularly in Sweden and internationally. His works are held in the collections of institutions including Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Malmö Art Museum and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art.