Nicklas Randau, "Air (Ultramarine Ash)"
Signed Nicklas Randau and dated 2019. Canvas 60 x 75 cm.
Molekyl Gallery, Malmö, "Three Years Later", 2019.
Nicklas Randau was born in 1989 in Kristianstad and is based in Stockholm and in Malmö, Sweden. He was awarded the acknowledged Bernadotte Grant in 2017 and Ax:son Johnsons Scholarship the same year. His has exhibited at Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin, Germany, Sölvesborgs Konsthall, Sweden, The Royal Academy of Art, Stockholm, Sweden and he participated in a group exhibition at Strandverket Konsthall in Marstrand, Sweden, in 2018.
Randau works with abstract painting that inspires contemplation and reflection. In his works, the oil paint is of fundamental significance with its inherent characteristics – it takes time for the paint to dry, and thus the painting stays alive. Randau uses tools such as a squeegee or works directly with his hands to push the paint across the canvas. This bodily contact creates both a physical and mental presence in the painting. Throughout the creative process, he works during long periods and enters a state of mind in which he becomes one with the piece. The paintings embody a form of compressed or dissolved time and space.
(Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki)