JACOB DAHLGREN
“A Wonderful World of Abstraction”
Jacob Dahlgren (born 1970 in Stockholm) is an
intelligent, amusing and visually fascinating
artist, whose life merges with his art.
He has over 1,000 striped t-shirts. His paintings
based on them were on display at Galerie Anhava
in 2003. Dahlgren eats tinned food and makes
gaily coloured pieces of sculpture from the empty
cans. He can made sculptures from IKEA
clothes-hangers or a relief from disposable
plastic cups. Scales, packaging for beef stock or
other products, dart boards and crispbread turn
into art in his mind and hands.
With each of his works Dahlgren proves to us that
everyday life contains material for art. He
processes the everyday experience, reminding us
that it is worth our while to look around us. In
a sense, he still carries on the tradition of
constructivism, reforming and refreshing it, and
placing it in the present-day context. Dahlgren
represented Sweden at the last Venice Biennial
and has since then held a solo exhibition at the
Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and participated in
exhibitions such as “Superabundant” at the Turner
Contemporary in Margate, “Stitched and Gathered
at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center of Moma in
New York and “Dangerous Beauty” at the Chelsea
Art Museum in New York. At Kiasma in Helsinki he
participated in the recent exhibition “Image and
After” of works from the collections. Dahlgren
has been candidate for the Ars Fennica Prize.
Jacob Dahlgren has made several public works of
art in Sweden, and his works are in public and
private collections both in Sweden and outside the country.