Rävarnas picknick (The Foxes’ Picnic)

Eva Lillan Kullgren likes to sculpt anthropomorphic, or human-like, animals that, like the fables of old, tell something about what it means to be human. Kullgren creates scenes in which her figures interact with each other or with the observer. They may be seeking contact or turning away, but they are always social beings.

The Foxes’ Picnic invites us to enjoy the company of the cool and relaxed foxes. Especially in the summer, when the patinated cast iron bodies are warmed by the sun and you can climb up on them and get cosy. A sand pit surrounds the cast-iron artwork, inviting budding young artists to try their hand at sand sculpting.

The artwork was the winning entry in a competition in which four artists were asked to design a sculpture for the renovation of the Stadsparken playground. The municipality wanted a work that could function both as a playground sculpture that was imaginative and accessible for children, as well as an aesthetically attractive sculpture for adult viewers.

Kullgren’s artistic achievements are multifaceted. She is both a sculptor and a painter, and moves freely between sculpture and paint through assemblage and mixed media, always with the same acute aesthetic flair for material and colour composition. While her sculptures are often playfully figurative, her two-dimensional pictorial works are rather dreamily abstract. She lived for a time in Närke, and the Municipality of Örebro’s collection contains sculptures, reliefs, textile works, graphic art and paintings signed by Lillan Kullgren.

Later on, between 1998 and 2002, Kullgren took a break in her artistic career to start a gallery along with Britt Arnstedt in the Östra Karup countryside on the Halland/Skåne border. Kullgren has returned to her artist role and now lives and works in Stockholm and Rydsgård.