ANDREAS ERIKSSON

Eriksson works between painting, tapestry, sculpture, photography, film, and installation. As a painter, Eriksson is keenly interested in the texture possible within the medium, and often employs multiple types of paint within a single work, including oil, acrylic, and egg oil tempera. This use results in his canvases having varied surfaces with multiple layers, consistencies, and sheens, which emphasize the act of painting by the artist. The works have a unique quality of light, with many possessing a luminosity, and others a command of darkness. 

The textural shifts and the color palettes relate his paintings to the natural world, and Eriksson’s works fall between figuration and abstraction. The paintings' lack of a horizon line renders disorientation as a landscape, yet the botanical, earthy hues continue to recall a pastoral setting. Eriksson has described his works as “existential landscapes”; the paintings function as a form of personal exploration, yet are unmistakably influenced by the environment and topography of his lakeside home in rural Sweden.

Frequently connected to the tradition of Nordic romanticism, Eriksson’s cites the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and Icelandic artist Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval (1885-1972) among his inspirations. A two-person exhibition of work by Kjarval and Eriksson, "Roundabouts,” was on view at The Reykjavik Art Museum in 2014, and celebrated the connections between the artists. Eriksson’s work was additionally included in a group exhibition at i8 Gallery in 2017.

Andreas Eriksson was born in 1975 in Björsäter, Sweden, and lives and works in Medelplana, Sweden, on the south bank of Lake Vänern.Eriksson represented Sweden as part of the Nordic Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), and has has had many notable solo exhibitions, including The Nordic Watercolour Museum in Tjörn, Sweden (2020); ‘Memories of Snow’, Cahiers d’art, Paris, France (2020); ‘Cutouts, Mistakes and Threads’, Braunsfelder Family Collection, Cologne, Germany (2019); ‘Work in Progress’, Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden (2017); ‘Roundabouts’, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, which traveled to Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Norway; Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland; and the Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland (2014–2015).

The artist's works are included in prominent international collections including Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France; MUMOK, Vienna, Austria; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; and X Museum, Beijing, China.