Lina Rincon, a Norwegian artist born in Colombia and based in London, has a rich background in painting and ceramics. Over the past decade, she has created works for art shows as well as commissioned pieces for hotels in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Her artistry has garnered the attention of private collectors and has led to the distinction of selling her work to the Norwegian Prime Minister, as well as to renowned cultural institutions in Oslo. Rincon’s work has been showcased internationally, with exhibitions in the USA, London, and Norway. The upcoming show marks her inaugural exhibition in Malta.

At the heart of Rincon’s creative ethos is the belief that art is more than a medium of expression; it’s a unique way of thinking and problem-solving. Her paintings, characterized by the absence of people, seek to capture the essence of spaces. Rincon is deeply fascinated by the interaction between humans and their environments, exploring how individuals project their personalities onto spaces and, in turn, how these spaces reflect our inner states. This unique approach not only demonstrates her technical skill but also reveals a deep introspection and curiosity about the human condition. 

— 

Art statement

‘I’m always trying to find the balance between the beauty and simplicity of an architectural space and the way a space or scene can make us feel,” she explains. “The spaces are a collage of collected images and imagination for me, and I think this gives them an almost ‘dreamscape’ quality.” Her work explores ideas of utopian realms and ideal spaces—places where we can truly be present, existing in a state of stillness and awareness.

Drawing inspiration from the utopianism of the 1960s and ’70s, Rincón’s work borrows visual cues from architectural drawings, blueprints, and modern architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. Her tranquil residential scenes incorporate familiar mid-century modern tropes—clean lines, swimming pools, and tropical plants—merging her Colombian roots with more global, even generic, landscapes. Surrealist perspectives add a subtle sense of disorientation. These dreamlike spaces evoke déjà vu, stemming from a combination of memory and imagination. By omitting figures, Rincón’s paintings invite viewers to place themselves in these environments, as if stepping into a stranger’s empty home, uncertain if or when its inhabitants might return.

Inspired by interiors, travel, and architectural composition, Rincón creates a seamless harmony between modernist structures and elements of the natural world. Water appears as frozen splashes, reflecting concrete buildings in a surreal interplay of light and texture. Her images of modernist leisure leave viewers with the sensation of having entered a space recently vacated, dramatizing stillness and freezing movement.

“The interiors I paint are mostly imagined,” Rincón says. “I take inspiration from modernist homes in Los Angeles or Spanish villas in contemporary compounds. I’m always searching for a sense of calm and happiness—a sense of peace in accepting that we don’t have control in real life, but perhaps we do in these idealized spaces. I’m fascinated by architecture—a particular angle or spatial construction within a room, a ray of light coming through a window, or a corner where the light draws hard lines. I rarely start with a fully constructed interior in mind; instead, I begin with a single element that inspires me and let the painting unfold layer by layer.”

In her work, anticipation meets stillness, capturing moments as if frozen in time. “I want to convey a sense of contradiction—fragility and irreversibility,” she reflects, “a feeling of waiting for something to happen while simultaneously desiring to be peacefully suspended in contentment.’

Please follow Lina Rincon on Artsy too