20.8 - 5.9 2026
Opening reception Thursday, August 20, 4:00–7:00 p.m.
Galleri Helle Knudsen is pleased to present a scholarship exhibition featuring Alexander Bäckman, Maja Möller, and Peter Andersson. Each year, Galleri Helle Knudsen awards several scholarships to promising artists in collaboration with Konstsällskapet Våga Se. As a natural extension of this work, the gallery has over the years presented a large number of scholarship exhibitions, giving young artists the opportunity to meet a broad audience in a professional exhibition environment. These exhibitions have become a popular part of the gallery’s program and are a way of introducing new artistic voices to the art world. Alexander Bäckman, Maja Möller, and Peter Andersson were three of the recipients in 2025.
>> See works by Alexander Bäckman
>> See works by Maja Möller
>> See works by Peter Andersson
Alexander Bäckman, Sunset, oil on wood, 40 x 40 cm, 2025Alexander Bäckman (b. 1993) is based in Stockholm, where he is studying for a Master’s degree in Fine Art at Konstfack. In his artistic practice, he looks beyond his habitual visual language—the things his hand intuitively wants to create—while also embracing familiar intuition.
I am interested in the moment when our gaze encounters the world, whether through open or closed eyes. I ground my work in a symbolic language that I balance on the boundary of the banal, an area I experience as liberating in its creative potential. I am drawn to small movements or fleeting moments and examine and amplify their significance.
Maja Möller, To tie oneself into knots, anamorphic illusion in wool, 70 x 140 cm
Maja Möller (b. 1990) is based in Uppsala and is studying the Master’s Programme in Craft! with a textile focus at Konstfack. Illusions and shadow effects recur throughout Maja’s work. She draws inspiration from various optical illusions and seeks to create works in which the search for a solution is more important than whether a solution actually exists.
I am fascinated by the way our brains take in information but sometimes distort it or filter out parts of it. How we can deceive our eyes and create works that seem to distort reality and cross dimensions.
Peter Andersson, Bombus senex, jesmonite and steel, 122 x 38 x 38 cmPeter Andersson (b. 1988) is based in Umeå, where he is studying for a Master’s degree in Fine Art at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. By observing and recreating scenes in which people wait together, Peter explores their interactions and the social codes expressed through subtle gestures, glances, and shifts in posture.
During my bachelor’s program, I was introduced to bronze casting early on and fell completely in love with the process. The steps from making a mold of a sculpture to producing the finished bronze each involve unique and intricate techniques and methods that must be experienced and felt in order to learn what problems and solutions may arise along the way.