Astrid Sylwan, born in 1970, graduated from Konstfack in 2005. In Sylwan's paintings, color takes center stage. Not just as a shade, but also as a physical presence. Sylwan uses all the physical capacity of color when applying it to the canvas with wide brushes, palette knives, or scrapers, or pouring it over the canvas and letting it flow in large droplet formations. The motifs are abstract, but she refers to herself as a landscape painter, where the motifs are a reflection of her emotional and mental state.

The paintings are large, often several meters high and wide. Painting on a large scale is a way of daring to take up space, and it was important to me before. Now I like large paintings because you don't just look at them, you are in them. They surround you and you have a bodily experience. To see the whole, you are forced to move and it becomes almost like a dance, which I enjoy.

Today, Astrid Sylwan is one of Sweden's most prominent artists; she has been awarded several prestigious scholarships, exhibited throughout the Nordic region, and her works are now held in collections including the Moderna Museet, the National Public Art Council, and the Malmö Konstmuseum.