7.5.-26-5 | Opening on May 7th at 6-8 pm. Welcome!
In their joint exhibition at Makers’ Gallery, the artist couple Mattias Löfqvist and Janika Norrgård-Löfqvist present visually and thematically different works, although their basic approach to art and art-making is very similar. Letting the image speak for itself, evoking memories, emotions, over time.
Mattias relies more on everyday life, conflicts and disturbances in his art, while Janika seeks a quiet but powerful experience that transcends the everyday life.
MATTIAS LÖFQVIST – Memories and time
Mattias Löfqvist thinks that painting is a visual language that is not easy to translate or explain. He uses it to think and formulate things that are unclear and cannot be expressed in any other way.
He often paints over failed paintings and over time this has become an increasingly important part of his work. His painting is very much based on failures – bad colour combinations and lame compositions often evoke the feeling of something familiar, something that should be remembered.
Mattias paints interiors, both physical and psychological spaces. His paintings are like an interior landscape trapped in a brick house built in the late 70s.
Time is also an important factor in Mattias Löfqvist’s art. Something that has been circulating in the body’s subconscious for decades suddenly finds its way out in a painting. The painting is like a memo on a lost Post-it note that has fallen under the fridge. And when you find the note, you no longer remember what it means. What does it say, what was I supposed to remember?
JANIKA NORRGÅRD-LÖFQVIST – Timeless visual poetry
Art and painting are a language for Janika Norrgård Löfqvist. She uses this language to express nuances in life that verbal language cannot describe.
The artist uses motifs, brushwork, texture and layers of colour in her visual storytelling. She endeavours to highlight an inner being, a mood or an emotional state that can connect to the viewer’s inner world and allow an experience beyond everyday reality.
Janika works very intuitively and she is constantly collecting impressions that can become paintings. Dreams, emotions, memories, images, music, light and colours. Her style can be described as visual, wordless poetry. Her paintings convey a sense of stillness rather than movement. Like a pause in time.
The artist is very careful not to talk about the content or interpret her art, mostly to give the viewer an opportunity to experience and feel. She seeks the wordless and low-key expression, where the painting itself is given space. There is a subtle poetry in painting as a language that does not make a fuss, but when viewed in silence is very strong and telling.
In her new works, she plays more with structure and brushwork, and she has also incorporated sculpture into her expression, using painting in these too. This is the first time she has exhibited sculptures.