Edith Hammar (b. 1992, Helsinki) is a visual artist whose most important tools are graphite and ink. Their drawings feature recurring motifs which are in many ways autobiographical, focusing on the experiences and images of gender non-conforming characters, socializing, relaxing, and getting dressed or undressed in various casual settings. The often large-scale drawings invite the viewer to enjoy the surreal and intimate settings of the drawings. The motifs are often real life situations or personal fantasies transferred onto paper.
Drawing is very direct and can be instrumental to reshape a narrative or illustrate a fantasy.
By recreating situations through drawings something unpleasant can become surreal and poetic in a mirror world. The memory lingers but through the drawing integrity is reclaimed. Hammar’s art practice is both love letter and documentation of everyday life and desire.
The motifs can be seen as utopian but for Hammar drawing is more nuanced than that. The motifs create a non linear narrative where the onlooker can find direction and clues to real life. With humor and surrealism Hammar is telling stories about the erotic or maybe just the monotony of regular life.
Hammar uses their art to filter their surroundings so the drawings become translations of intimate thoughts and memories. Objects like zippers, boots, earrings and gardening tools are loaded with tension. Hammar enhances the bulkiness of the jeans fly and oversized sweat drops or tears are dripping down the arms of the characters who are looking back at the viewer. Perspective and scale can often be distorted and enhanced to emphasize desire or fear. Hammar is asking both themselves and the viewer which rules apply here and wether whatever is going on feels good?
In 2020 Hammar released their debut graphic novel Homo Line (Förlaget M) in Finland and fall 2023 their second graphic novel Portal (Förlaget M) was published. Hammar wrote and illustrated the interactive audiovisual drama Sexy pants and other problems for YLE and in 2022 the work was awarded first prize in the media competition Grand Prix in Potsdam. In fall of 2024 Hammar is showing their large scale work “Hot and slutty giants” in the duo exhibition “My eyes are like funnels, my ass is a hand” at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
They hold a BA in fine art from the Royal Academy of Fine arts in Stockholm.
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