Bo Markenholm was born in 1964 in Helsingborg, now based in Österlen in southern Sweden. As a young boy he was a devoted drawer and in his home there was an inherited art library. Van Gogh, Dali and American hyperrealists became early favorites. After studying art history at Lund University in the early 1990s and then various practical art courses, he began his career as a portrait artist. Although it was not his ideal occupation, those years enabled him to develop an ability to “translate a two-dimensional surface into something that contains life”.

He has had several exhibitions over the years and is represented in many private collections. When he describes how he found his voice as an artist, he emphasizes the importance of looking at the world with a clear gaze. All the details, the changing colors and above all the light in the shadows – how all the parts form a whole. Regardless of how the motifs and expressions vary, from hyperrealistic still lifes to impressionism, his aspiration is always the same: to create life on the canvas.