Christina Pettersson was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her large scale drawings, videos, installations and group performances focus on the hidden histories and environment of Florida. Public programming and collaborations are central to her art practice, engaging the audience directly in a deeper understanding of the narratives inhabiting their own backyards. Her artwork reveals an allegiance to the wilderness of a bygone era, the sorcery of the night, and the experience of a world in decline.
“I’m enchanted by the history of human relationships to plants and the natural world. My art practice evolves from the Everglades landscape I grew up exploring, as Florida increasingly becomes a paradise lost. Through research and exploration, I reconnect the audience with our wild places and selves. We love what we find beautiful, and we protect what we love. As a gardener, amateur historian, naturalist, birder, explorer and wild thing, I long to restore that epic and mythological dimension, a sense of awe and reverence for the world. I want to be a storyteller and a messenger of plants. I want to believe that life is still wild.”
She is the recipient of a Knight Grant, Wavemaker Grant, Ellies Creator Award twice, Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship thrice, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She is in the collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Margulies Collection and the Four Seasons Hotel.
