Johan Engqvist
Question your tea spoons
7.10 - 3.11. 2023
Opening Reception, Saturday, October 7 at 12-4 pm.
Johan Engqvist (b.1990) lives and works in Gothenburg. His paintings follow a non-hierarchical structure in which all motifs are equally valued. The compositions are often pattern-based and sometimes lack clear fixed points and central perspectives. The result is a body of work that avoids clear categorisation and exists between figuration and abstraction.
Engqvist uses a decorative aesthetic and sentimentally charged imagery, often from the domestic sphere. These coincide with various art historical references. For Engqvist, this intermingling of visual information works partly to challenge art-historical hierarchies and notions of good taste and partly to broaden one's perception of what painting can be, do and contain.
Engqvist holds an MFA from the Valand Academy of Fine Arts. He received his BA degree from Umeå Art Academy. In 2022, he received the Swedish artists' Council's one-year working grant
Previous solo exhibitions
2023 - Floralia, Detritus Gallery, Göteborg
2022 - Life in the Interior, WeCollect Gallery, Madrid
2022 - In being open to surroundings, aesthetic possibilities arise, Galleri Helle Knudsen, Stockholm
2021/2022 - Ornamentation, Vänersborg Art Gallery
2021 - NSFW/Svilova, Gothenburg
Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 115 cm