During the 1970s Petter Zennström became known for a wider audience for his black and white wood engravings. The works were angry and aggressive; words and images were combined in order to channel his anger over the world's political, economic and social injustices. Petter Zennström once said, 'I live in the belly of the beast, in the midst of welfare', and his early art aired this fury over unjustly distributed resources and political violations.

During the 1980s and the 1990s Zennström developed his painting and his distinctive and unique imagery. Strong colours and organic forms expanded over the surface of the image and the paintings moved from the figurative to the abstract. The paintings no longer commented on a specific political or ideological conflict, but rather related to them. Hidden in the painting, on an implicit level, there is a contemplation on the present which is at times difficult to come to terms with.

With time, form has come to dominate over the explicit message, and in the new series of work the cross is the fundamental form. The cross takes place against organic and ornamental shapes and the artist's temperament has governed the choice of colours, ranging from bright primary colours to warm earthy tones. The motif is repetitive and the paintings can be approached as a series of works, but the complete suite can also be seen as one single work.

Born in 1945 in Stockholm, Petter Zennström lives and works in Västerljung. He received his artistic education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1971-76). He has exhibited both in Sweden and abroad. He is represented at, among others, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; Borås Konstmuseum, Borås; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Gothenburg; Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö; Norrköpings Museum, Norrköping; Rooseum, Malmö and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo.