An Echo from Folkhemmet

I sometimes think of him as the younger brother I never had. Martin Wickström, who is exhibiting at Örebro Konsthall this summer, is born a few years later than me in the 50s. Even deeper down in the middle of the folkhemska. We are both children of our time, a subject which has been discussed, by […]

Convincing Historiography

The first thing you see at Angelika Knäpper Gallery is a kid’s bike by the brand Maraton in a glass showcase. It’s still wrapped in its original protective paper, despite the fact that it appears to be almost antique. Objects concentrated by the passing of time is a recurring theme in Wickström’s artistry, but in […]

Angelika Knäpper Gallery, Stockholm: Martin Wickström

You don’t have to be a discouraged philosopher like Schopenhauer to understand the view on life as a long string of sufferings and betrayed hopes. Most of us has had that moment in our life, when everything didn’t go as we expected, that left a thorn in our soul. One of the qualities in Maja […]

What Didn’t Happen

Martin Wickström tells stories about the passing of time and the changing of the world. In the exhibition “Marathon” at Angelika Knäpper Gallery some paintings of building facades are on display. The shadows of pine trees and bushes nearby become characters in the shadow play on the sunlit walls. Is this where the artist grew […]

Dream life

Dream life Martin Wickström and Carin Ellberg are exhibiting paintings from the middle of their careers: two position fixes. Martin Wickström creates art from play and sorrow – I remember the centrifugal power from an earlier exhibition about a friend who died while climbing K2. His new exhibition at Galleri Engström is rather centripetal and […]

Screwed montages

Screwed montages  Nothing is stable in Martin Wickström’s imagery, motifs from different contexts are mixed together without obvious connections. Perhaps they are best described as montages, since the paintings have various objects screwed onto their surfaces. At Galleri Engström you can view figure sawed silhouettes mounted on the paintings, forcing themselves into the motifs. In […]

The Art Consultant is Building Again

Martin Wickström, 46, is an artist and decision-maker of art. The people of Stockholm have him to thank / blame for the monument of Wallenberg being where it is. If you want to see his own art this is a good weekend to do it. Two flights of stairs down Martin Wickström opens the door […]