JOCKUM NORDSTRÖM

The new pencil drawings and watercolour collages build on the motifs and imagination that mark Nordström’s oeuvre: characters, fauna and flora in extraordinary scenery and unusual situations. Each work consists of different elements which have been sourced from reality or have sprung from Nordström’s fantasies and desires. His observations of the vast Scandinavian landscape are the inspiration for his more abstract collages.

The narrative is an important aspect in the artist’s practice. The stories are often inspired by everyday observations, with a focus on human relationships and the setting in which they take place. Today, the artist mainly works in Gotland–a remote place in Sweden–making natural elements increasingly prominent in his work, as in Ek (Oak) and Suset i skogen (Wind in the forest). In Barndom (Childhood), Nordström refers to the modernist blocks in the suburbs of Stockholm where he grew up.

Nordström’s work method has remained constant: he cuts, paints or draws elements from different worlds and eras before bringing them together in his own story. For instance, the three figures in Drunkare (Drunkard) are based on characters from different periods, myths or folklores. The elegant and meticulously composed fragments form a mysterious world that flirts with the sinister.

Central to this exhibition are the new mobile sculptures. The sculptures produce their own sound but are also accompanied by musical fragments. All materials have been recycled from his studio. The work Wishing Well, which lends its name to the title of the exhibition, refers to the coins he found in his studio and used to balance the sculptures.

Jockum Nordström is currently working on a solo exhibition that will open at Liljevalchs konsthall (Stockholm) in the spring of 2023. Recently, he had institutional exhibitions at La Criée centre d’art contemporain (Rennes) in 2021 and at the Skissernas Museum (Lund) in 2020.

Work by the artist has entered the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou (Paris), MoMA (New York), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio), Göteborgs Konstmuseum (Gothenburg), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Magasin III (Stockholm), Moderna Museet (Stockholm) and others.