John Hultberg (1922-2005) grew up during the Depression as the child of Swedish immigrants. Coming of age in a period of turmoil, Hultberg's work explains what many members of his generation also felt. Having painted continuously for decades, no single term can be used to define the artist or his works. The extreme ups and downs that have marked his life have just as equally marked his art. Possessing both a dreamlike quality similar to Surrealism as well as distorted urban landscapes reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism, the artist created a style all his own.

Referred to as apocalyptic, melodramatic, surreal, visionary, dreamlike and filled with stress and paranoia. John Hultberg's style can really only be known as "Hultbergian." Having experienced the early loss of his mother, alcoholism, troubled marriages and a number of career highs and lows, the artist's complexities become apparent through his works. A complicated man producing complicated art, no one true effect or feeling is expressed through his works.