Johan Carlsson Strom – Becker Artist Scholarship 2026

The scholarship exhibition at Färgfabriken
There is something unspoken, sometimes eerie, about Johan Carlsson Ström’s work. The motifs often originate from places where something seems to lie hidden beneath the surface: environments that have witnessed events, landscapes that bear traces of human presence, or objects marked by history, memories or charges. Carlsson Ström’s great understanding of mood, or rather energy, that which is formed in the relationship between time and space, is evident in his artistry and in the exhibition as a whole.

Several of the works have their origins in actual models, such as film scenes or photographs, while others move more freely from memories or fiction. All motifs coexist without merging into a clear narrative. Instead, they create an open visual space where associations, fragments and moods are allowed to remain side by side. These can be scenes from true-crime documentaries, haunted dolls, religious icons, abandoned landscapes or diffuse figures, often depicted turned away or striving away from the viewer’s gaze. 

More than thirty works, mainly newly produced and largely never before shown outside the artist’s basement studio, have moved into Färgfabriken and cover two large triangular wall structures that lead the visitor around the main hall. There are also a couple of sculptural works that, through the artist’s sense of color and materiality, have taken the step into the space. 

All works can be experienced and constitute independent stories, but through the design of the exhibition, new lines of sight, angles and encounters between them are constantly created. There is a commonality of waiting silence in his works, like scenes of deliberation but exactly what remains unclear. As viewers, we are left to fill in the gaps and interpret the answers ourselves, we are fascinated and amazed in a similar way as when we are faced with inexplicable phenomena or conflicting emotions.