The Sten A. Olsson Scholarship (2016-2017)

Solo Exhibition at Gothenburg Museum of Art, Stenahallen, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.
2016.12.03–2017.02.19

 

In the exhibition, Fredrik Åkum presents three series of work. Shirt (2015-2016), an ongoing series of paintings all deriving from a detail of a personal photograph. Through painting, Åkum wants to investigate how to depart from the origin by using the paintings themselves as new sources, a way to find an autonomous gesture. Like a torn bootleg each repetition takes a step from its source, the paintings mimic each other. Riso Dust I–IV (2016) are paintings revisiting one of Åkum’s most used tools in his practice; the copy machine. The dust of the scanner glass is enlarged hundreds of times and depicts what could be seen as inverted drawings, portraying what normally wouldn’t be seen. Riso Dust I–IV (2016)  is one of many attempts to merge Åkum’s practice of fanzine-making with his practice of painting. On the museum floor, four objects are placed, Untitled (nets) (2016). Basketball nets, cast before fulfilling it’s purpose on the court, as a monument of what won’t happen, where memories and nostalgia can’t be produced.

 

Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture
Motivation Text
Text: Stenastiftelsen

The art of Fredrik Åkum (b. 1987) covers a broad range of creative expressions: from painting and sculpture to fanzines, installations and textile prints. His repetitions and retakes create a translucent and fragmentary visual world that is easy to lose oneself in. The gaze of the viewer is immediately drawn in by vegetation and figures that hover between abstraction and representation, between everyday experience and the unthinkable. One of the pervasive themes in Åkum’s oeuvre is inconstancy, and by combining the exactitude of the moment with slow and arbitrary aspects, he demonstrates the capacity of art to enrich reality. For an artistic practice that is rich in variation, and that lays bare the contours of existence with mysterious luminescence, Fredrik Åkum has been awarded a 2016 Scholarship from the Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibition works:

Shirt (2016) 135 x 190 cm, acrylic & oil on canvas
Shirt (Cloth) I–V (2016) 120 x 180 cm, acrylic & oil on canvas
Shirt (Cloth) VI (2016) 270 x 180 cm, acrylic & oil on canvas
Riso Dust I–VI (2016) 32 x 45 cm, oil on canvas
Untitled (Nets) I–IV (2016) various dimensions, resin, enamel, polyester