Jesper Nyrén: Elements

With his technique of applying color Nyrén has created different types of materiality in the separate fields of the paintings. Having previously worked with several types of paint, such as oil and acrylics, mixed with for example sand to get a different texture, he has now created the contrasts solely by painting them. With the contrasting fields of density and surface, form and abstraction, Nyrén balances the tonality in the composition and creates a spatiality in his paintings. 

There is a fine line in estimating the placement of the different elements or building blocks; if the alignment shifts, they can collapse or break. Each entity is in need of the other parts and in that relation, between weight and weightlessness, there is a tension. The law of gravity is challenged – can the sky or the rendering of it, support the weight of the ocean or the earth?

The title of the exhibition, Elements, is important by its definition, the elements or the components allude to the composition in the paintings. The title also reflects a landscape in a period of time, affected by the season and the weather. For Nyrén the most important thing is how the landscape and light emerge in the paintings. To render a light where the elements form an entity as a whole, and with that a recognition.

Jesper Nyrén (b. 1979) graduated from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm in 2007. He has been shown in solo exhibitions in the Nordic countries, including at Norrtälje Konsthall, as well as in numerous group exhibitions and at the Borås International Sculpture Biennial. He has been awarded The Swedish Art Committee working grant, 2018–2020 and the Baertling Scholarship, 2015. Nyrén has made several public installations, among those the Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, and the subway station Gullmarsplan in Stockholm. His works are represented in public collections at Åbo Art Museum, Finland, Västerås Art Museum, Public Art Agency, Sweden and in private collections.