Jessica Hallbäck is a Swedish artist whose work moves between playfulness and social reflection.

She first gained recognition through her series Angry Animals – images of cute yet confrontational animals carrying sharp, often political messages. The works combined a childlike visual language with direct statements about power, inequality and everyday life.

Today, her practice has shifted towards painting, where she explores similar themes through a softer but equally layered expression. Hallbäck creates portraits of children as well as recurring motifs of teddy bears, figures that move between innocence and symbolism. In her work, these characters become a way of looking at the world through a child’s perspective — where imagination, vulnerability and strength coexist.

She works across different materials and surfaces, primarily using acrylic, allowing for both bold color and a direct, intuitive process.