To present Torbjörn Johansson´s colorful body of work is especially interesting in a context like Verk provides it – where the color scale in the furniture collection is strictly limited. In this way the furniture and the paintings can intensify each other. And even if they might appear as opposites when it comes to color, there are other aspects they share. Especially in relation to material, they both fearlessly choose new ways, develop their own materials, and believe in taking advantage of things that are nearby.

Torbjörn Johansson was born in Emmaboda in 1959 and lives and works in Stockholm. He studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and has had numerous exhibitions in Sweden an abroad since the 1990s. His work has been shown at Danshallerne (Copenhagen), Örebro Konsthall (Örebro), FÄRGFABRIKEN (Stockholm), Center for Samtidskunst (Trondheim), Moderna Museet (Malmö and Malmö), Statens Konstråd (Stockholm), Katrineholms Konsthall (Katrineholm), Cites des Art (Paris), Gallery VER (Bangkok), Verkstad (Norrköping), Liljevalchs (Stockholm) and PS1 (New York), among others.

His multi-facetted body of work includes painting, sculpture, film, performance and installations. He has also realized many public commissions in various cities in Sweden. His interest for cross-genre contexts has led to projects with other creatives. He has for example collaborated with dancers and musicians to explore how different art forms approach the relation between the body and the space.

Aside from his own artistic practice, Torbjörn Johansson runs the recognized culture center Kummelholmen in Vårberg (Stockholm), together with art collector Jan Watteus.

But the artist does not stop here, but also incorporates images of historical bodies in her work. Looking closer, we also glimpse imagery from antique mythology and medieval figures. Nature and culture merge in the artist´s very own language and in a narrative mirroring us as human beings:

The starting point for several of the works in the exhibition is for example the antique myth of the twins Romulus and Remus, who were saved by a she-wolf. In the work “Varginnan”/ “She-wolf”, we see the classical motive, the animal nursing the small boys. “1 (tvillingarna)”/ “1 (the twins)” and “2 (tvillingarna)/ “2 (the twins)” are details of the same image. “Madonnas huvud”/ “Madonna´s head” is, on the other hand, part of a long artistic research about damaged medieval wooden sculptures, especially women´s bodies. The search for alternative images of the body that has been exposed for trials and injuries characterizes Rebecka Bebben Andersson´s work, and becomes a manifestation of human endurance and resilience.

It is possible that the time lap between antiquity and the Middle Ages and today allows us to reflect about existential questions more easily. But does the historical distance also change our perspective and the narrative itself? How much can we still perceive when the complete narrative is not available any longer, but only details? And how do we preserve our histories of origins, so they can live on in the future? In the light of an ongoing war in Europe, these questions are more relevant than ever. The question about the damaged body. The question about the cultural heritage and its importance for our identity as humans. Art cannot give us an answer, but it can help us to phrase questions that are complex and not necessarily comfortable.

Rebecka Bebben Andersson was born in Linköping in 1984 and divides her time between Stockholm and the island of Öland. She received her MA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2014, and is also educated architect. Her work has been presented in a large number of exhibitons in Sweden and abroad and is included in public and private collections. Moreover, she has worked intensely on public commissions during the last years and created several large wall pieces. Among these are facade designs for the University Hospital in Linköping (2018) and Södersjukhuset in Stockholm (2019). She also contributed with a facade design to the Långbrodal School in Älvsjö (2017) that was appointed Stockholm’s Building of the Year 2018. Currently, she works on an extensive commission for the Stockholm Public Transportation Company (SL), designing the facades for several technique buildings. In the end of March, she is also part of the museum exhibition “Extremt mycket utan regler” (with Anna Nordström and Peter Larsson) at Växjö konsthall.

Ear to the Ground seeks to break down distance and the perception that there is a “nature” that exists apart from us. In order to face the threat of climate change, we must give voice to non-human actors – the gardens, the cities, the stones, the glaciers. Sparre wants to investigate how our relationship with what we consider nature can be reevaluated by giving it a voice and a possible language. Perhaps by repositioning our perspective, we can give rights to our environment and to non-human actors in our world.

Additional to the works from Ear to the Ground the exhibition includes a number of antenna stones, a collection of stones that are equipped with radio antennas. These sculptures are a playful take on the attempt of communicating with stones, and point out the necessity to develop another kind of sensibility – an antenna – for the voices of nature.

Ulrika Sparre´s deep interest in spiritual patterns and the mechanisms of transformation provide us with a respectful perspective on nature and material in nature. This also makes it possible to reflect on how we use natural materials in production and consumption. By presenting Ulrika Sparre´s art in the context of VERK´s furniture, we want to open up for a broader discussion about our responsibility for nature and the world we live in.

Ulrika Sparre (b. 1974) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. She applies her artistic practice to multiple media creating installations, sculpture, photography, film, performance and sound art. In recent years, Sparre has exhibited at Färgfabriken, Reykjavik Art Museum, ARTIPELAG, Varbergs Konsthall, Stene Projects Gallery and Index Foundation. In 2021, she had a retrospective solo exhibition at Kristinehamns konstmuseum. Additionally, she has performed a number of projects in public spaces. She studied at Konstfack (University College of Arts, Craft and Design) in Stockholm and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

The artist´s process moves step by step from light to painting. Departing from his own photographs he enlarges, crops and distorts his images, and puts them together again in compositions that seem abstract at first sight. Each of the different media builds layers of information, but in the end they melt together in the final painting. Even the paintings themselves often consist of several different layers or parts. We might find a larger image that is interrupted by overlapping abstract patterns reminding of dripped water, there can be an image displaced from its frame and standing on an edge, or the white canvas can suddenly leak into the painting´s motif. The various parts also differ in their structure. Soft lines with converging colors and invisible brushstrokes stand in contrast to areas with distinct brushstrokes and thicker color, and to parts with affixed objects as e.g. banknotes. However, all images contain an unmistakable movement. We look at motifs that do not represent static conditions, but a reality constantly changing.

Further characterizing for Jonas Bouleau´s work is his variation of formats and sizes, and his playful use of contrasting sizes relating to each other in the paintings themselves. A painted eye can be radically enlarged (and thus abstracted), while it reflects a house that is radically diminished in relation to its real size – everything becomes a question of perspective.

Consequently, we can expand the question and think about which mechanisms influence us personally in how we look at the world. What happens if someone changes a bit of the image we have in front of us, if someone twists it according to his or her own perspective? Does that change our view on reality? Art does not give us any answer, but it has the ability to make us aware of the existing preconditions we encounter when we experience the world we live in.

In that way, Jonas Bouleau does not only ask questions about our own ability to see, but also about the possibilities and restrictions of painting. He considers painting a mirror that reflects the viewer, the space and an historical context. One could say that he puts visible filters onto reality to make us aware of the existence of filters in general. At the same time, the expression of his paintings represents a reality that makes its way directly into our consciousness. Without any filter.

Jonas Bouleau (*1988) completed his education in fine art at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm with a master’s degree in 2015. He has exhibited both in commercial art galleries and in art institutions, and has received several scholarships and grants over the last years. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.

EKTA naturally moves between different formats, materials and expressions. His work includes both large murals and commissions in the public space, as well as painting, sculpture, performance, music, textile works and clothes. His working process springs from the joy of experimenting and the curiosity of pushing the borders of aesthetics, material and handicraft. He describes himself as too restless to consider proven techniques – instead, the consequently inevitable mistakes become part of the creative process and often signify the elements advancing the work.

In his imagery, the abstract and the figurative converge. Graphical elements, symbols, and patterns, built up with strong colors and distinctive outlines, appear in front of a white background. And certainly, we can identify faces, buildings, a car or a cap… What occurs as playfully primitive on the surface, concurrently includes distinct references to modernistic art as e.g. cubistic fragmentation, but also to cartoons. The visibility of the process, such as erasing and retakes, underlines the dynamic in the works. This kind of storytelling fills the works with life, and allows an immediate communication with the viewer.

With a twinkle in the eye, EKTA´s work often includes humoristic elements, and his titles can reinforce or contrast our associations. Ignoring traditional boundaries, he moves the ordinary, and even damaged, into spaces of high culture – and the classical art out into the urban space.

Reflecting on EKTA´s works, a paradox appears: they carry a volatility that evolves from his way of working, as well as from the fact that he as an artist values the process higher than the object. In this way, his drawings represent a contrast to VERK´s focus on furniture as long-lasting objects. At the same time, his unique drawings constitute irreplaceable objects of art as soon as they have left the hand of the artist. He himself needs to go on, his artistry consists of creating. The objects – artworks – however, are lasting objects for us who are intrigued by the never ending creativity of art.

The exhibited paintings represent Hägglund´s entry into the Swedish art scene a couple of years ago. With their size and their strong colors, they demonstrate a self-confident attitude. Moving between the figurative and the abstract, they stand their ground and draw us into the inner space of painting.

It is the energy of the composition and the brush strokes, mirroring the artist´s movements in front of the canvas, that constitutes the soul of the artworks. Hägglund is more interested in painting itself, and especially the act of painting, than in what is depicted. Most often, he works in series choosing a visual world that serves both as a starting point and a limiting frame for the artistic process.

In contrast to digital techniques, Hägglund´s body of work indicates a genuine interest in the artist´s hand and in craft. Consequently, he works with all parts of the process himself, starting from manufacturing frames, stretching and preparing the canvas, painting, and finally resulting in the completed artwork. All parts are important for the creation process, but it is in the moment of painting the artwork is “born”.

As viewers, we can easily decipher art historical references in Hägglund´s visual language, as well as a wink to contemporary aesthetic expressions. However, the paintings are unburdened from specific contexts and storytelling. We get the opportunity to load them with our own associations, or alternatively experience them as a symphony of color and form. Details can both be interpreted in a figurative way, or instead as a reminder of the process of painting. In this way, the artist skillfully interweaves different layers of the painting´s narratives. 

We have consciously chosen an artist who mirrors VERK´s values and the first steps in connection with the launching of our brand. Both the furniture collection and the art are characterized by a passion for material and handcraft, as well as the courage to take on challenges and demonstrate strong presence. Here, the artwork´s abstract vegetation represents a new start and breeding ground, thinking big from the very beginning.

Johannes Hägglund is born 1993 and lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied at Gerlesborgsskolan (Stockholm) and continued his education at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, from which he obtained his master´s degree in 2020. His work has been shown at i.a. Jakobsbergs Konsthall (Jakobsberg, Sweden), Galerie Forsblom (Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland), Liljevalchs Spring Exhibition (Stockholm, Sweden), and the Royal Art Academy (Stockholm, Sweden). He is represented in public collections, among them Dalarna läns landsting (Sweden) and EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland), as well as in private collections.