When Butterflies Grow from Backs and Trees Lament in Sweden’s Changing Light

A butterfly with human shoulders and a tree that mourns like a stranded woman—these are the surreal figures populating Klara Kristalova’s latest ceramic world. Working from her studio in Sweden’s northern archipelago, Kristalova channels the disquiet of climate change into sculptures that blur the lines between plant, animal, and human. Her pieces are caught mid-metamorphosis, echoing the constant flux of the natural world around her, where winters have lost their ice and summers scorch the earth. Each work is a study in contradiction: beauty laced with unease, warmth shadowed by threat. A sun mask radiates both comfort and cruelty, capturing the delicate balance—and imbalance—of our environment. Kristalova’s uncanny creations don’t offer easy answers; instead, they invite viewers to linger in the discomfort of transformation, where nothing is fixed and every form is a reminder of nature’s fragile, shifting state. #ContemporaryCeramics #ClimateArt #NordicArtists #Culture