• Jenny Carlsson Grip: “I Dig, Claw and Plough in the Colour”

    Written by Natalia Muntean

    Celebrated for her evocative blend of painting and graphic art, Swedish artist Jenny Carlsson Grip is one of the four recipients of the prestigious Ann-Margret Lindell scholarship, offered by Grafikens Hus. Based in a forest studio in Blekinge, Carlsson Grip’s art bridges the rawness of nature and the intricacies of human expression. Her work, often created through field observations and completed in the studio, captures the textures, moods, and contrasts of the natural world.

    In our conversation, we discuss her artistic process, the significance of receiving this recognition, and her plans to further explore landscapes through hand-printed graphic art inspired by weather diaries and Nordic terrains.

    NM: Nature plays a central role in your work, yet you avoid romanticising it. How do you strike a balance between abstraction and realism in conveying the rawness of the natural world?
    JCG:     I’m drawn to both the wild and the cultivated landscape and am intrigued by the ugly and frightening as well as the calm and beautiful sides of nature. My work is a place where energy, nature and colour meet.

    NM: Your dynamic brushwork and physical engagement with paint give your work a tactile quality. How does this hands-on approach enhance the storytelling in your art?
    JCG:     The physical process with the material, the paint and needle strokes, are central to my work. I dig, claw and plough in the colour, walk back 20 steps just to run forth again. In the large canvases, I can let the arms stretch and the nails scrape on the surface, in the small graphic plates the drawing carries the moment, and the printing refines it.

    NM: What does receiving this scholarship mean for you, both personally and professionally, and how do you see it shaping your future as an artist?
    JCG:     Thanks to this I can continue to work professionally as an artist in these rather uncertain times, it is of course also very meaningful to get recognition for my art so I’m very grateful for this. This will help me to continue using graphic art in my fieldwork exploring nature and colour.

    NM: The stipend celebrates excellence in graphic art. What do you think makes your approach to graphic art unique, and how does it align with the values of this award?
    JCG:     I come to the graphic art technique as a painter and find within it a materiality and an expression that complements my oil painting. I usually work outside and have found that the graphic copper and plastic plates also work very well in bringing them out into the landscape. I make the drawing with the needle outside and let the colours come in the printing studio, which leaves space both for the motif and for the act of painting, I like that process.

  • Linus Höj Krantz: "Finding Loopholes in a Medium with Set Rules"

    Written by Natalia Muntean

    Blending alchemical experimentation with graphic art and craftsmanship, Linus Höj Krantz, born in 1989 in Skärholmen, Sweden, is an artist whose works explore themes of cycles, escapism, and environmental disruptions, often integrating unconventional techniques with traditional methods. In his latest project, Linus draws inspiration from Arlanda Airport, transforming its logistics and design elements into etched circuit boards, copper engravings, and sculptural objects that connect history with modernity.

    Discover more about the artist’s innovative approach to printmaking, the impact of being one of the four receivers of the 2024 Ann-Margret Lindell Stipendium, and the importance of creating a dialogue between art and the unnoticed systems that shape our world.

    Natalia Muntean: Your interest in unconventional methods of printmaking sets you apart. What draws you to challenge traditional boundaries in this medium?
    Linus Höj Krant:     I think perhaps the way I work around these boundaries has a lot to do with my personality. I enjoy haphazardness and a tiny bit of chaoticness, at the same time I crave boundaries and templates. Finding loopholes or possibilities to tweak a medium that has long-set rules and archetypes is just something that suits having that type of mindset. Also, I think it´s a medium that has a lot of potential to conversate with the present and its ways of transmitting images and information.

    NM: Your work often combines experimental techniques with traditional printmaking. How do you decide which techniques to integrate into a new project?
    LHK:     Accumulating techniques and finding out what works is a long and slow process, I would say. I might pick up a seed of a technique while working on a current project. Then a concept or a site or something that whispers to this technique gets added to the back of my brain and eventually, it becomes the foundation towards new work. For the last ten years, I´ve been travelling a lot by bus and train within the Nordic countries, partially because of studying in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. These constant journeys have made me subconsciously and consciously merge landscapes, energy and logistics with techniques such as electrolytic printmaking, circuit boards and sculpting found material/metal. Usually, I start a project with too many ideas, and as the project develops, I scratch and peel off what doesn´t need to be in it.

    NM: What does receiving this scholarship mean for you, both personally and professionally, and how do you see it shaping your future as an artist?
    LHK:     I think it means more than a lot. It´s a great encouragement to continue to try new and unwritten paths within my artistic process. Hopefully, it will bring more flexibility for me to spend longer periods on research and grinding new techniques.

    NM: The stipend celebrates excellence in graphic art. What do you think makes your approach to graphic art unique, and how does it align with the values of this award?
    LHK:     I guess what sets me apart could be that I´m very curious about how rare methods and artistic processes can have a dialogue with what surrounds us but often go unnoticed. Having your antennas both inside the box and outside of it, I guess resonates a lot with the ideas and core values of this incredible grant.

  • Fanny Hellgren: "Each Work is a Universe in Itself"

    Written by Natalia Muntean

    Born in 1992 in Gothenburg, Fanny Hellgren is an artist whose work bridges the ephemeral and the eternal, capturing the cycles of nature and humanity’s search for meaning. Through innovative techniques blending sand, water, and pigment, she creates mesmerising landscapes and sculptures that reflect geological processes and cosmic origins.

    This experimental approach, steeped in both scientific inquiry and mysticism, has earned her the prestigious Ann-Margret Lindell Stipendium for excellence in graphic art, making Hellgren one of the four receivers of the 2024 Ann-Margret Lindell Stipend offered by Grafikens Hus. Find out more insights about the artist’s creative process and how her art resonates with contemporary audiences navigating environmental and existential crises.

    Natalia Muntean: Your work delves into geological processes and their connection to cosmic origins. How do you think these themes of time and materiality resonate with contemporary audiences?
    Fanny Hellgren:     I think these more eternal themes that I work with are always relevant in a way. Now, when we’re in the middle of an environmental crisis, ideas of how we’re part of nature and what our role is to it resonates with many people I believe. At times of political conflicts, wars, and humanitarian crises, people tend to search for more existential and spiritual expressions.

    NM: How did you develop this method of working with sand, pigment, and water, and what challenges or discoveries have shaped it?
    FH:     I began making these works in 2020 during the pandemic when I was studying at Malmö Art Academy at the time and the school shut down suddenly. I didn’t have access to my studio anymore and this forced a turning point in my practice. I began spending a lot of time walking at the Ribersborg beach in Malmö, so I began making works outdoors using sand, stones and graphite powder to make marks on paper. The process evolved quite fast and I started using a spray gun to apply pigments mixed with water onto sand-covered papers.

    I constantly discover new directions and results within this process. One important discovery was when I started using slightly bigger grains of sand, which resulted in the contour of every grain becoming visible and imprinted on the paper. This is conceptually important for this series. When you see the works close-up they are very detailed - you can see how the grains gather as islands and how the water finds its way around the dunes. But seen from a distance this is not perceptible and instead other patterns and shades appear. It’s like each work is a universe in itself.

    NM: What does receiving the Ann-Margret Lindell Stipend mean for you, both personally and professionally, and how do you see it shaping your future as an artist?
    FH:     I’m very honoured to receive this grant. It means that I can dive deeper into my process to develop it and give myself the space in terms of time and money that is needed to take it seriously.

    NM: The stipend celebrates excellence in graphic art. What do you think makes your approach to graphic art unique, and how does it align with the values of this award?
    FH:     I have never worked in a particularly traditional way with any medium. Instead, I prefer an experimental approach to the materials I use and enjoy discovering my own unconventional techniques. My sand drawings can be defined as drawings, paintings, or graphic art and I’m glad the jury thinks my work fits in this context and may contribute to widening the definitions of what graphic art can be. It’s really a kind of printing technique I’ve developed, but without a press and with an ever-changing result.

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