• Jesper Nyrén

    Written by Art & Culture

    Jesper Nyrén explores in his paintings how color and texture create spatiality, and how the experience of a landscape can form new spaces in painting. In the visually rich and tactile surfaces of the paintings, we can become involved in a nature with both our gaze and our bodies. The compositions seem to consist of building blocks that support and reinforce each other. Each building block has its own color tone and weight, and together they form a structure that is equally parts light and architecture. Jesper Nyrén was born in 1979 and studied at the Royal Institute of Art from 2002-2007. He lives and works in Stockholm.

    What are you working on right now? Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    My exhibition during Stockholm art week is at Teatergrillen. It consists of paintings on canvas and paper. Right now I am working with an exhibition that will take place in Bohusläns museum in the summer (together with Katarina Löfström) and a commissioned work for a subway station where I work with ceramics.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    I always loved painting and drawing and this thing of being absorbed in that private, slow process. I think that over the years I have come to concentrate more and more on the most fundamental elements of that process - the materials and color themselves, scale, composition and atmosphere

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    I work with different places in mind. To try and recreate a light or an atmosphere that I have experienced but through color and relations rather than figuration. I work with a group of paintings at a time. Before I start to work on the actual paintings there’s a lot of sketching and trying different ideas. And then as I start painting almost all of those ideas fail. So I have to work my way back to something. It’s a long process of changing and adjusting and going over everything many times. It is that long and slow process that I want. To spend time painting.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    I have made a few works called ”Notes”. They consist of many paintings and sometimes also photographs that are hung in a long line. The separate parts are almost monochrome but are painted in very different techniques, with different materials and tempo and so forth. Then I choose which parts will be included and in which order. It’s like modular paintings that can be changed and rearranged infinitely and also be composed in relation to the space where they are installed. I like that because it´s a very intuitive and experimental process.

    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    It’s great! A lot of good exhibitions to see and a nice and familiar atmosphere

    Do you have a favorite Swedish Artist?
    Barbro Östlihn

    Do you have a favorite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
    Teatergrillen of course :)

  • Affordable Art

    Written by Natalia Muntean by Art & Culture

    Stockholm Affordable Art Fair 2023: A preview of what's to come
    “I see them in my dreams. I dream a lot,” says Fredrik Sologub, known as Dive, about his paintings and creative process. He stumbled into painting eight years ago after a party and hasn't stopped since. “Nowadays, my art is much less curated and more raw and authentic,” he says about his evolution.
    Dive is one of the artists whose work will be featured at the upcoming Affordable Art Fair in Stockholm, with his painting adorning the event's poster. The Stockholm fair, now in its 11th edition, will run from October 4th to 8th, 2023, at Nacka Strandsmässan. It will showcase thousands of contemporary artworks from over 60 hand-picked local and international galleries. This year's fair, called Follow your art, emphasizes love and humanity - something needed in these times and something that art can help express.
    Among the artists showcasing their art this year are Mimmi Hammar, contemporary artist, Yoyo Nasty, artist and illustrator, and Erik Batsberg, multidisciplinary artist working in interior design, sculpture, and painting. In addition, Sigrfrid Billgren, designer, artist and the son of Swedish artist and writer Ernst Billgren, will also display his art at the fair.
    The first Affordable Art Fair took place in Battersea Park in 1999. It has now spread to ten cities around the world, welcoming over 185,000 art lovers each year to explore affordable artwork crafted by emerging and established artists.
    Poster: DIVE, 'Cottoncandy Volcano'

  • Julia Peirone

    Written by Art & Culture

    Julia Peirone is a photographer who is famous for her pictures of teenage girls. The way she captures them is by having them pose with their eyes half-closed and mouths slightly open while in motion. This creates images that seem to reveal the inner feelings of the young women she portrays. A journalist named Joanna Persman once described these poses as not being particularly flattering, but rather authentic depictions of the confusion that often characterizes teenage life. According to Persman, young people are a mystery not only to adults, but also to themselves.

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I have some ideas for new works but too early to say anything. I used to have a little bank of ideas and when the time is right I pick one to go on with.
    Right now there is one or two I am thinking of.I recently finished Squeaky Stardust that I will show at Stockholm Art Week.

    The installation ‘Squeaky Stardust’ (2023) features both a video work as well as a series of polaroid-like images.
    A heavily made-up model can be seen slowly turning around with music playing in the background.
    Reminiscent of a ballerina in a music box, she circles around and around. A female voice can be heard saying ‘smile’
    and the girl complies over and over again. The camera flashes capturing her grimacing, and her makeup smears when
    she tears up. The attention from the unseen photographer becomes distressing while a toy squeaks covering any vocal expression from the protagonist.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    The idea of having a fun life and being free.
    It has been an interesting and fun artistic journey (I have been lucky) but I have also worked hard.
    I am very grateful for the possibilities I had to show my work and all the attention I got. I know how hard it is. There is a lot of good artists/art outhere that should be shown more.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    I see, I think (not too much), I do and then I think more.
    Most of all I try to have fun while I am doing my work. I often start with a rather banal idea that makes me laugh or wonder about something.
    I trust my intuition that it will come out deeper things from those ideas. I like to see how the process leads me through the right way.
    I try to be sensitive to what happens under the process. If there are mistakes, I see them as possibilities instead of failures. I often get surprised.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    The series More than Violet (the portraits of girls when their poses are out of control) these pictures where important both in my work (pointed out a more concentrated direction) and in my career. The pictures also embrace a lot of things that represent who I am as an artist.

    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    It's good, of course as an artist I would like it to be more experimental. Unfortunately the market is deciding too much what is shown in galleries for example. Stockholm is a good art city concerning that is not the biggest city in the world. But I would like to be more surprised and and see more strange and `impossible` art.

    Do you have a favorite Swedish Artist?
    Yes, Barbro Ötshlin.

    Do you have a favorite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
    Yes, Cafe on hornsgatan/mariatorget.
    The best coffee in town and nicest people working there. Also a very nice bar.

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