Hailing from Sweden, Yrjo Edelmann worked as a comic strip illustrator for many years until he started to paint.  His “parcels” became his signature and caught my eye as exceptional trompe-l’ oeil images.  At first I thought they were just giant, poorly wrapped presents, but upon closer inspection I learned that they are in fact impressively intricate oil paintings.

Occupying a space between illusion and hyper-realism Edelmann’s paintings pull from the influences of surrealists such as Rene Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Marcel Duchamp.  Capturing every wrinkle and tear in the paper Edelmann’s paintings  float a few inches off the wall, furthering the confusion about their dimension.  A viewer might wonder what’s inside these rather poorly wrapped packages, endowing Edelmann’s paintings with a sense of both mystery and humor.

Yrjo_Edelmann2 Yrjo_Edelmann6 Yrjo_Edelmann5 Yrjo_Edelmann7 Yrjo_Edelmann Yrjo_Edelmann9 Yrjo_Edelmann3 Yrjo_Edelmann4 Yrjo_Edelmann8via beautifuldecay.com