Kristina Hagström was born in Sweden but for the last decade has been UK based. On her move to the UK, which followed 15 intense years in a corporate career that she pursued after being denied the chance to go to art school as a young woman, she finally fulfilled her desire to study sculpture and graduated from an MA in Visual Art Sculpture at West Dean College with Distinction.
Stone has always fascinated Hagström. As a child growing up in Sweden she spent a lot of time outdoors, where she would investigate for and collect stones. Today Nature remains a great resource for her work and allows her to access and flow her creativity. Psychology, philosophy and poetry, particularly the Persian poet Rumi, are also important influences that inform her work. She says “To me creativity is to give your work all you’ve got, to bring your whole soul into your work.”
Each piece she creates exposes a response to a feeling or to reveal the essence of a character in a particular moment, or period of time. Often these are personal to Hagström but they are emotions and sensations that are universal to the human condition: love, grief and friendship. Masks and heads are common themes but she also explores form and space in her more abstract pieces. Hagström is intrigued by the meanings in a sculpture that are not immediately obvious and to explore how these meanings are exposed and where they exist - in the object, in the mind of the artist or in the minds of the spectators.
Her work is honest and direct and her sculptural style free and expressive. She says “I love that a sculpture is tangible, you can feel it, touch it, smell it. I am hoping that my art is touching the viewer”.