• photography Sandra Myhrberg

    fashion Sara Lindén

    jacket & shirt Han Kjobenhavn

    sunglasses Retrosuperfuture

    necklace Feng Chen Wang & Neighborhood

    rings Tom Wood

    An Interview with Herbert Munkhammar

    Written by Fashion Tales

    Herbert Munkhammar has been active in the hip-hop and R&B scene since the early 2000s and has enjoyed success with formations such as Afasi & Filthy, Maskinen and Ansiktet. Both sing, produce and write music. Recently, however, Herbert has embarked on a solo career. He just released a single under his stage name Afasi, and there's more to come. Later this year, he will drop a solo album.

    You just released SARAJEVSKO! Tell us about the process behind it?

    I started working with David Landolf last year and we wrote a bunch of songs. Both for other artists and for me. All kinds of things, lo fi-stuff with a lot of melody, rnb songs etc. But eventually we started experimenting with pitched down vocals, Houston-inspired sounds mixed with up tempo beats. We even made a demo out of my Portuguese vocal sample from Segertåget with Maskinen. David played me some Phonk music. I really liked the vibe since I’ve been a Houston, southern rap, chopped & Screwed fan for many years. We started making the song SARAJEVSKO.

    And there it was, the first proper Swedish Phonk song, at least as far as I know. The style kind of reminded me of me and Filthy’s song (Afasi & Filthy) Glider. After we had made a few more songs for my upcoming album I changed my artist name back from Herbert Munkhammar to AFASI. And that’s also when we brought in Mats Norman to bless the project with his great producer skills. He also co-produced SARAJEVSKO.

    How would you describe your music?
    I’ve done so many different kinds of music throughout the years, from Southern(ish) hip-hop with Afasi & Filthy, R&B with Ansiktet and festival mayhem with Maskinen. This time it’s club oriented, uptempo and drum n bass mixed with Phonk and rave. Playful cocky rap and epic song hooks. UK meets Memphis. This album is for the night time. Either in your car or at the club.


    Tell us about the first song you wrote?
    It was a song called En Mobbad Och En Smutsig with Organism 12 & DJ Large. We recorded it at Large parents house outside of Uppsala. I was 15 years old, I could barely keep pace when I rapped, but Mats Nileskär played it in P3 Soul just weeks after we recorded it. It was surrealistic to hear his legendary voice mentioning my name. Of course I recorded it on my tape deck and played it out loud in my classroom the day after. Stoked.

    How do you express yourself through clothing?
    Since I was a kid I’ve always loved nice clothes. It has always been a part of my identity. But when I look back on how I looked in different stages in my life I always laugh. Like when I had long hair. Why!? Where I’m at now, I’m kind of fed up with preppy looks, and tend to go for things that stand out more. Colorful racing jackets, big leather pants and so on.


    What's next?
    I’ll drop a new single in late May. A straight up club banger! The album is done and will be released in September, so I guess I’ll write some more songs, because why not, play live and do promo until then. And try to make people dance more to Swedish Phonk of course!

    jacket & shirt Han Kjobenhavn

    trousers Marni

    shoes Dr Martens

    sunglasses Retrosuperfuture

    necklace Feng Chen Wang & Neighborhood

    rings Tom Wood

    photography Sandra Myhrberg

    fashion Sara Lindén

    grooming Paloma Gonzalez Axeheim

    photography assistant Emelie Hammarfeldt

  • Cornelia Baltes

    Written by Art & Culture

    Cornelia Baltes is a German artist known for her paintings and installations that stand on the edge of abstraction and figuration. Corporeal elements such as hands and feet, part of a face, often captured in motion, are teased out of bold colour fields and gestural forms that combine to hint at a narrative in pictorial space

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I’m currently preparing my exhibition ‘Hub Bub’, which will be my first presentation with Andrehn-Schiptjenko. It's exciting for me as I’m taking over the whole space with murals and paintings. I think it's going to be quite intense and maximalist.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    The short version of the story is that I felt very strongly that this is something that I wanted to do and I just kept stubbornly working on it. I found my voice as an artist while studying in London around 2010 and my practice has just continued to evolve since then. I just haven’t stopped. Keeping doing is the root of my practice and how I need it to be.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    Everything I do is grounded in a drawing practice. I don’t draw from life but rather from memories, half-memories, sense-memories. I tease the work out into the open somehow and then it finally resolves as I negotiate with the materiality of painting to make it take form.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    I was very happy to catch the Alex Da Corte show at the Louisiana Museum last autumn. I really responded to his practice- how he was working with strong colour and even smell, to handle the space of the museum in its totality in a multisensory and emotional way. Being such a perfectionist for producing his often very short videos impresses me. He’s also very funny with it, which I like.


    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    This trip is going to be my first experience so I’m looking forward to diving in.

    Do you have a favourite Swedish Artist?
    I recently became aware of the work of Moki Cherry through a presentation at Galerie Nicolai Wallner in CPH. Her practice with her partner Don, was very holistic and they saw art as part of life which I love. Visually Moki’s work resonates strongly with me too and feels totally contemporary and exciting.

    Do you have a favourite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
    I’m a total Stockholm virgin, but hopefully after my show I will already have some favourites. Looking forward to meet you, Stockholm!

  • Hampus Balanzo Wernemyr

    Written by Art & Culture

    Hampus has a very unique perspective on the world. He sees things in his own way, and it shows in how he portrays both people and objects. Someone once said that it was like getting a glimpse into another world, but we rather think it's precisely his perspective on the world.

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I’m about to start working on a series of paintings for a group show in Seoul, South Korea, in September. I’m picking up the brushes where I had to lay them down due to the deadline for my current solo show Turpentine Conclusions at ISSUES.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    My mother is an artist and my father an architect, creative thinking and aesthetic expression was held very high during my upbringing. As long as you said it was art almost everything was allowed. Art was equal to freedom. But I didn’t paint until my mid twenties, instead I played the violin and guitar. When I started painting I immediately knew I had found the thing I could do the rest of my life. My way of painting has changed a lot over the years but it has always been strictly painting for me since I began.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    That’s a mystery to me. Painting is kind of a struggle up until I start painting then I just let go. I get an impulse or idea, something that I’m curious about. I then start building on that idea using logic and some kind of balance. Paintings are like contraposto towers to me. It sounds out there, I know, but visualizing it like that makes it much easier for me to know where I am in the process and to know what needs to be done.
    Over the years I’ve come to realize that all I do is constantly judge every idea or move I make in the studio. It’s basic commands like yes/no, continue/stop, ringt/wrong. The hard part is knowing what command to choose.
    Since my work is completely dependent of the zeitgeist I pick up, I will never run out of ideas or get stuck, because my my view is constantly changing.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork /series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    I guess my graduation show Tip-Tap has been the most important show for me. Working towards that show I took the stance I have kept since then. I started doing things my way all the way. Fully accepting my artistic practice and being ready to go down with it if it leads to that.

    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    I don’t think of that. Wow, that’s probably the worst answer in an interview ever.

    Do you have a favorite Swedish Artist?
    Yes many. One artist that has been with me since forever is Evert Lundqvist. We share the love of focusing on a single object in each painting.
    Currently reading Lars Noréns dairies and his way of living through his work resonates deep within me. I too don’t understand how to exist without working.

    Favourite bar/restaurant
    I don’t go out like that very often. I keep in touch with my friends on the phone from the studio. And I meet colleagues and friends at openings. I prefer to dance on my nights out.

Pages