Jan Svenungsson ”Monstrosities”

Svenungsson calls the method “post-conceptual” which refers to the fact that the process is based on a kind of systematic approach towards the painting process. Thus, the form is at once free and controlled. Each painting is an accurate translation of a drawing in pencil. From the freely invented form of the drawing, he then continues into the painting and recreates an image that focuses primarily on what is actually seen and found in the very appearance of the drawing. Some paintings have taken a figurative form, as a kind of personalities, or as Svenungsson himself calls them, ”monstrosities”, while other paintings are abstract and emphasize a more scientific view of the world. For him, these are two different ways of approaching reality. The images contain just as much curiosity and closeness as humor and self-exploration. Everything is about seeing what is really in front of your eyes.

Since the end of the 1980s, Jan Svenungsson (born 1961) has pursued an idiosyncratic, multimedia oeuvre that explores themes related to the use of language and art’s relationship to content and meaning. Svenungsson studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm 1984-89, and gained great attention for his photographic work of chimneys, also regarded as postmodern photography. This photographic project was then developed into monumental sculpture forms, as well as an extensive series of drawings. In dialogue with the chimney project, Svenungsson has continued to develop his painting projects. In addition to ”Paintings” (2010 –), the extensive series ”Test Paintings” (1992 – 2009) could be mentioned as well as the various Psycho-Mapping projects (1995 –).Svenungsson is based in Berlin and since 2011 head of the department for drawing and printmaking at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In 2017 he had a large retrospective exhibition at the Uppsala Art Museum. In 2018 he represented Sweden at the Busan Biennale in South Korea. In 2019, his acclaimed book ”Making Prints and Thinking About It” (De Gruyter, Vienna) was published and in fall 2020 he will participate in the important exhibition ”Diversity United” at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, then in Paris and Berlin.