JACOB DAHLGREN


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.

Anhava

Dan Graham


Issue #97 features an exclusive interview with artist DAN GRAHAM about his retrospective at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary art. Graham is a leading conceptual sculptor and his exhibit at MOCA has been the talk of Southern California. Sonic Youth performed at the opening reception but it was Coagula who sat down and spoke to the artist prior to the public’s viewing of this magnificent, historic show.

Also featured in this issue is an interview with Swedish painter Sigrid Sandstrom on the occasion of her first solo show in L.A., a chat with Amy Young of Perihelion Arts in Phoenix, discussing the direction of contemporary art in the southwest, and much, much more including a look at the 2009 NY Armory Show with pictures of who was there and reports on who wasn’t!

Coagula