Emanuel Bernstone was born in 1973 in Karlskrona, Sweden and spent his childhood in his father’s studio in the Stockholm archipelago. He now lives and works in Berlin, a city he has long felt an affinity with and that proves highly productive for his artistic endeavors. Bernstone’s formal artistic training began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, which he attended between 1997 and 2003, and subsequently went on to obtain his Masters in Fine Art in Meisterschüler. Often coolly monochrome, conceived in elegant tones of black, grey and white, Bernstone’s works are rich and lustrous in texture. Deceptively complex, they strike a beautiful balance of the abstract with figurative and architectural elements, creating mysterious spaces and intriguing unfinished narratives. Bernstone seeks to express in his work ‘a stillness, which allows forgotten emotions to be awakened.’ In his early work, Bernstone fuses an abstraction of colour with bird forms. His technique bears a strong resemblance to the “Squeegee” abstract paintings of Gerhard Richter. Underpaintings are covered with thick oil paint, applied using a broad brush or a squeegee which is then used to smear the paint along the length of the canvas. This creates a smooth buttery wet-on-wet surface that replicates the effect of light reflecting on the surface of water. For his subjects, Bernstone studies native birds of Sweeden and those encountered in the countryside surrounding Berlin. In recent years his work has taken on a more formal abstraction influenced by his contemporaries in Berlin. Bernstone continues to hold exhibitions in major locations across the world, most frequently in Berlin, Stockholm, San Francisco and London.