"MASK"
Signed Andreas Eriksson and dated 2015 on verso. Oil on canvas, mounted on linen and panel. Canvas 33.8 x 34 cm.
Andreas Eriksson's major breakthrough came when he represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale in 2011. He chose to emphasise the interplay between the outdoors and indoors, nature and architecture by letting the existing, coarse tree trunks in the pavilion’s centre interact with the paintings and the small bronze sculptures representing molehills and dead birds that had been placed here and there on the floor. Since then, Andreas Eriksson is constantly being asked to do exhibitions both in Sweden and abroad.
Eriksson started at the Academy of Fine Arts at the young age of 18 (1993). After completing his studies he settled in Berlin, where his career took off quickly, and he worked, among other things, as an assistant to artists Olav Christopher Jenssen and Tobias Rehberger. After suddenly developing electromagnetic hypersensitivity, he was forced to radically change his life and move to the countryside at Kinnekulle.
In 2004, an exhibition titled “Exposition-Peripeti” with works by Andreas Eriksson was showcased at Galleri Magnus Åkerlund in Malmö. His works from this period reflect issues of exclusion, identity and individual solitude and isolation from society. Eriksson works with everyday motifs, light meeting shadow, with the images gradually forming in the viewer’s awareness. The titles are prosaic and indicate time or position determinations: “The sun rises at 8.34, October 7 in studio 2004”or “Car passes at 12.37 on 6/4 2004”.
His first institutional solo exhibition took place at Bonniers Konsthall in the spring of 2014. The exhibition was a hit with critics and continued to the Trondheim Kunstmuseum in Norway, the Centre PasquArt in Switzerland and the Reykjavik Art Museum in Iceland. In Stockholm, Eriksson is currently a topic of interest with the huge painting “Stenbrottet”, which has been placed at the entrance to Nya Karolinska Solna Hospital (NKS). The painting measures 11 × 6.5 metres and is mounted on the short side of a huge elevator shaft that runs through the building.
Upcoming show at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, 28 April 2018 - 26 May 2018.
Andreas Eriksson is a Swedish artist, born in 1975 in Lidköping. Eriksson studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm between 1993 and 1998, and works with various techniques in his artistic practice, including painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, and graphics.
A recurring theme in Andreas Eriksson's works is the presence of nature; the light over meadows, forests, and mountains is shaped into structures, blocks of color, and organic formations. Often, a motif emerges that can be interpreted as landscapes, shifting between figurative and abstract spatialities. However, Eriksson suggests that the rich and almost sculptural works can just as easily be seen as something other than interpretations of nature; as internal, diffuse landscapes where the viewer can linger.
After a period of work in Berlin, Andreas Eriksson now resides in Medelplana on Kinnekulle in Västergötland. In 2011, he represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale with Fia Backström. Eriksson is also represented at institutions such as the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Nasher and David J. Haemseigger Collection of Contemporary Art in the USA, the Sara Hilden Art Museum in Finland, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 2014.