Johan Söderström

ARTIST STATEMENT

My works are made of ordinary filler. It's a 5 mm thick layer surrounded by an oak frame. The filler cracks when it dries, and I make the cracks part of my expression. There is beauty in decay, and in imperfections. It recalls the physical forces of the world. Gravity and desintegration. Expansion and attraction. I like my work to be shaped by the properties of the material and by conceptual decisions, rather than any personal style.

I want to say something about alienation. As individual subjects we perceive the world through images. Images are representations, they are different from reality in itself. Thus we experience ourselves as somehow retracted from reality, and this primordial sense of alienation shapes the human condition.
By emphasizing the flatness of an image, and in the same time evoking the presence of the materials, I want to adress this lack, or longing, inherited in our perception of reality.

My work also relates to other modes of alienation, like the subjects estrangement from her natural conditions, or from the society as a whole. Or cultural alienation in the wake of migration and refugee crises. I often work in response to inequality or injustice, to raise awareness and make a stan...

Art Academy in Trondheim, Norway 1995-99
University of Stockholm 1993-94 Artscience
Gerlesborgsskolan Stockholm 1991-93
Lunnevads fhsk Linköping 1989-91

Levanger Kunstforening, Levanger 2017 - “ New Works”
No13 Contemporary, Fredrikstad 2017 - “Distal End”
Tenthaus Oslo 2017 - "Ingenmannsland"

Galleri Vanntårnet, Nesodden Kunstforening, Nesodden 2017 - "The Master Key"

Deichmanske Hovedbibliotek, Oslo. Kunstnernes åpne klimamikk 2017, arranged by CAN (Concerned Artist Norway)

Vandalerforeningen, Oslo 2016. Winter Solstice - "NOVE SED NON NOVA"

Ulstein Kunstlag, Ulsteinvik 2016 [Review, Vikebladet 11.06.16]

Cyan Salong, Oslo 2016 - "Intersect" [Interview, Foto.no]

Galleri 69, Oslo 2016 - "A Crack In Everything" [Review, Klassekampen 16.03.16]

Vandalerforeningen, Oslo 2015. Winter Solstice - "Play Hooky"

Christiansands kunstforening, Kristiansand, 2012 - "Afasi"

Galleri Henrik Gerner, Moss, 2011 - "Partners In Crime", with Ingunn Brevold and Tine Aamodt

Galleri Henrik Gerner, Moss 2008 - “Konst i det ofantliga rummet”, with I. Brevold, A. Hynne, C. Nissen, T. Aamodt, L. Larsen Kjelstrup

Galleri LNM, Oslo 2007 - ”Death of a Loyalist soldier”

Ski Kunstforening, Ski 2007 with K. Sager

The White Tube, Tøyen T-bane, Oslo 2006 with K. Sager

Hamar Kunstforening, Hamar 2005, with Tine Aamodt, Ingunn Brevold,

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