MIKAEL OLSSON
MIKAEL OLSSON

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EXHIBITION HAVREMAGASINET BODEN







THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE HOME


JUNE 10, 2024

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→ The Foundations of the Home: Havremagasinet länskonsthall Boden 2024






EXHIBITION HAVREMAGASINET BODEN



THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE HOME

08 JUNE 2024 – 29 SEPTEMBER 2024

Exhibition at Havremagasinet, Boden.

Mikael Olsson, LWRNTZ 01 (Workers’ housing, Karlshäll, Luleå, 1911–13, with T. Stubelius), 2021.

What is a home, beyond the purely concrete space, beyond the architecture, beyond the imagery of home advertisements? The exhibition The Foundations of the Home explores what constitutes a home in its most basic parts: material, sensual and conceptual. Centered around eight foundations – memory, space, the hearth, tradition, care, the shell of the home, the measure of the home, food –, the fundamental and timeless characteristics of the home are interpreted and reinterpreted based on practical, economic, architectural and ideological aspects. In this, the home appears both as a concrete place and as an image, in which current issues of sustainability, authenticity and security are deepened and problematized. The contributions to the exhibition cover building construction, furniture design, carpentry and art, and demonstrate how rules and norms, standardizations and language shape our understanding of the home materially and metaphorically.

The exhibition is curated by Mikael Andersson and Erik Törnkvist.




JUNE 8, 2024

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→ Havremagasinet






ART NOTES



ART NOTES by Karolina Modig


FEBRUARY 25, 2024

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EXHIBITION TEATERGRILLEN







Mikael Olsson At
Teatergrillen, Stockholm
30 January - 3 March, 2024


Self-portraiture has a long and meandering history. Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Amalia Ullman, Rafia Santana. If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history.

- Sinziana Ravini

Olsson’s self-portraits/selfies challenge the narcissistic use of selfies as well as the status of influencers. Further he destabilizes the composition of a traditional selfie where the eye line is recommended to be one-third down from the top frame. Through play and intuition, Olsson’s images are marked by both intimacy and distance, the role of his own physical presence and the perceptive relationship to the surroundings.



JANUARY 30, 2024

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Private viewings Nordenhake






T NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE



See my work for T New York Times Style Magazine . In southern Sweden, a former schoolhouse has become a minimalist live-work space for the designer Ingegerd Råman — responsible for iconic Ikea collections, including the limited-edition 2016 Viktigt rattan-and-bamboo furniture and accessories line, as well as pared-down crystal vessels for the Swedish glassmaker Orrefors — and her partner of more than 50 years, Claes Söderquist, an artist and experimental filmmaker.


AUGUST 23, 2023

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→ T New York Times Style Magazine






WHAT IS A HOUSE FOR



Mikael Olsson on Frösakull House by Bruno Mathsson. Read the interview at www.whatisahousefor.com


FEBRUARY 16, 2023

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ARKITEKTUR



Cover story for magazine Arkitektur 1/2023 is out now. The blue house in Djursholm by architect Byggfenomen + Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor and 2BKA is also published.

New editor Björn Ehrlemark.



FEBRUARY 8, 2023

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LWRNTZ (WORK IN PROGRESS) - MIKAEL OLSSON/JAN ERIK LUNDSTRöM



An excavation of Sigurd Lewerentz’ architectural remains.

First book out from Sweden's new architectural publisher Andersson Örn!
From the preface:
In this book, we are given a rare glimpse into Mikael Olsson’s ongoing work LWRNTZ: an artistic investigation of Sigurd Lewerentz’(1885–1975) architecture. Olsson’s finalized project will later on be published in a more extensive format, similar to his works ”Södrakull Frösakull” and ”on | auf” . Some of the photographs included here will possibly reappear, others may be reevaluated and disappear along the way. After all, this is a work in progress.
Lewerentz’ work spans over many decades and across a number of building types, styles, materials and techniques. This width is apparent in Olsson’s project, which could be labeled as an excavation of Lewerentz’ architectural remains, both known and unknown, wellpreserved and decayed.
This book is also a dialogue between the artist and photographer Mikael Olsson, and the curator and critic Jan-Erik Lundström – a dialogue, covering the photographic field, its actors, histories and theories, that began with a series of Zoom conversations between Olsson, Lundström and the editor of this book in 2021.
From Jan-Erik Lundström's essay:
The title LWRNTZ – which can be understood as a metonym, suggesting that here is a series of utterances which speak and express through proximity rather than similarity, hinted at by its omission of the vowels (three e) from Lewerentz’ name – illuminates and highlights a productive tension between referent (Lewerentz’ buildings) and figure (Olsson’s photographs), between motif and image, between the world of objects and things and – precisely – their metaphorical and metonymic representation. Indeed, the dimension of closeness is saturated and dense, both asymptotically and emphatically. The photographs live off, are nurtured by, and take place in the vicinity of these buildings, even if their primary aim is not necessarily to reproduce or represent them. The photos appreciate and honor the building’s independent status. It is a closeness that borders on merging, but that never crosses the line. Nearness but not parity or similarity.



SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

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→ Konstig Bookstore






OLSSON MIKAEL - MIKAEL OLSSON



New Book
ART AND THEORY, 2022

Self-portraiture has a long and meandering history. Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Amalia Ullman, Rafia Santana. If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history. Sinziana Ravini.

Olsson’s self-portraits/selfies (since 2007) challenge the narcissistic use of selfies as well as the status of influencers. Further he destabilizes the composition of a traditional selfie where the eye line is recommended to be one-third down from the top frame. Through play and intuition, Olsson’s images are marked by both intimacy and distance, the role of his own physical presence and the perceptive relationship to the surroundings. Olsson Mikael includes an essay by writer and psychoanalyst Sinziana Ravini.

Photography: Mikael Olsson
Text: Sinziana Ravini
Translation: Christine Antaya
Copy-editing: Mikael Andersson
Design: Malin Augustsson and Mikael Olsson
2022, English, hardcover
64 pages, 21 x 15 cm
ISBN: 9789198672022



MAY 5, 2022

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GALERIE NORDENHAKE, MARKET ART FAIR, LILJEVALCHS 30 APRIL 2022



AT MARKET 2022 Galerie Nordenhake presents Petra Gipp’s and Mikael Olsson’s exploratory response to the work of Sigurd Lewerentz in a reiteration of their acclaimed presentation at the 2018 Venice Architectural Biennale.

The images of Mikael Olsson are held by the tension between visual faculties and visual conventions, the reality of perception and the reality of vision, of the concrete and the abstract.” Péter Nádas

Olsson’s photographic practice explores the reenactment of history and the presence of the past in current times. Olsson ́s underlying aim is to redefine the genre of classical documentary photography. In the breath of its scope, his investigation into the legacy of Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz (1885-1975) constitutes a catalog raisonne. At the same time Olsson’s lens selects and reveals potent present and ongoing scenes. Each image proposes the site as a stage, a generative space.

Petra Gipp’s sculpture constitutes an interpretation of Lewerentz’s canopy construction at S:t Gertrud and S:t Knuts kapell in Malmö in cross section. Her architectural sculptures are both monumental and subdued. In this work the complexity of the construction and its various volumes are offset by the sculpture’s apparent weightlessness and transparency.
Gipp’s practice is characterised by its fluid transition between architectural case study and freestanding sculpture. She is an internationally celebrated architect in her own right.



APRIL 30, 2022

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→ Galerie Nordenhake, Market Art Fair, Liljevalchs






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EXHIBITION HAVREMAGASINET BODEN



THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE HOME

08 JUNE 2024 – 29 SEPTEMBER 2024

Exhibition at Havremagasinet, Boden.

Mikael Olsson, LWRNTZ 01 (Workers’ housing, Karlshäll, Luleå, 1911–13, with T. Stubelius), 2021.

What is a home, beyond the purely concrete space, beyond the architecture, beyond the imagery of home advertisements? The exhibition The Foundations of the Home explores what constitutes a home in its most basic parts: material, sensual and conceptual. Centered around eight foundations – memory, space, the hearth, tradition, care, the shell of the home, the measure of the home, food –, the fundamental and timeless characteristics of the home are interpreted and reinterpreted based on practical, economic, architectural and ideological aspects. In this, the home appears both as a concrete place and as an image, in which current issues of sustainability, authenticity and security are deepened and problematized. The contributions to the exhibition cover building construction, furniture design, carpentry and art, and demonstrate how rules and norms, standardizations and language shape our understanding of the home materially and metaphorically.

The exhibition is curated by Mikael Andersson and Erik Törnkvist.




JUNE 8, 2024

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→ Havremagasinet




ART NOTES



ART NOTES by Karolina Modig


FEBRUARY 25, 2024

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→ ART NOTES




EXHIBITION TEATERGRILLEN







Mikael Olsson At
Teatergrillen, Stockholm
30 January - 3 March, 2024


Self-portraiture has a long and meandering history. Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Amalia Ullman, Rafia Santana. If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history.

- Sinziana Ravini

Olsson’s self-portraits/selfies challenge the narcissistic use of selfies as well as the status of influencers. Further he destabilizes the composition of a traditional selfie where the eye line is recommended to be one-third down from the top frame. Through play and intuition, Olsson’s images are marked by both intimacy and distance, the role of his own physical presence and the perceptive relationship to the surroundings.



JANUARY 30, 2024

Share on Facebook Twitter

Private viewings Nordenhake




T NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE



See my work for T New York Times Style Magazine . In southern Sweden, a former schoolhouse has become a minimalist live-work space for the designer Ingegerd Råman — responsible for iconic Ikea collections, including the limited-edition 2016 Viktigt rattan-and-bamboo furniture and accessories line, as well as pared-down crystal vessels for the Swedish glassmaker Orrefors — and her partner of more than 50 years, Claes Söderquist, an artist and experimental filmmaker.


AUGUST 23, 2023

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→ T New York Times Style Magazine




WHAT IS A HOUSE FOR



Mikael Olsson on Frösakull House by Bruno Mathsson. Read the interview at www.whatisahousefor.com


FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Share on Facebook Twitter

→ WHAT IS A HOUSE FOR




ARKITEKTUR



Cover story for magazine Arkitektur 1/2023 is out now. The blue house in Djursholm by architect Byggfenomen + Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor and 2BKA is also published.

New editor Björn Ehrlemark.



FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Share on Facebook Twitter

→ ARKITEKTUR




LWRNTZ (WORK IN PROGRESS) - MIKAEL OLSSON/JAN ERIK LUNDSTRöM



An excavation of Sigurd Lewerentz’ architectural remains.

First book out from Sweden's new architectural publisher Andersson Örn!
From the preface:
In this book, we are given a rare glimpse into Mikael Olsson’s ongoing work LWRNTZ: an artistic investigation of Sigurd Lewerentz’(1885–1975) architecture. Olsson’s finalized project will later on be published in a more extensive format, similar to his works ”Södrakull Frösakull” and ”on | auf” . Some of the photographs included here will possibly reappear, others may be reevaluated and disappear along the way. After all, this is a work in progress.
Lewerentz’ work spans over many decades and across a number of building types, styles, materials and techniques. This width is apparent in Olsson’s project, which could be labeled as an excavation of Lewerentz’ architectural remains, both known and unknown, wellpreserved and decayed.
This book is also a dialogue between the artist and photographer Mikael Olsson, and the curator and critic Jan-Erik Lundström – a dialogue, covering the photographic field, its actors, histories and theories, that began with a series of Zoom conversations between Olsson, Lundström and the editor of this book in 2021.
From Jan-Erik Lundström's essay:
The title LWRNTZ – which can be understood as a metonym, suggesting that here is a series of utterances which speak and express through proximity rather than similarity, hinted at by its omission of the vowels (three e) from Lewerentz’ name – illuminates and highlights a productive tension between referent (Lewerentz’ buildings) and figure (Olsson’s photographs), between motif and image, between the world of objects and things and – precisely – their metaphorical and metonymic representation. Indeed, the dimension of closeness is saturated and dense, both asymptotically and emphatically. The photographs live off, are nurtured by, and take place in the vicinity of these buildings, even if their primary aim is not necessarily to reproduce or represent them. The photos appreciate and honor the building’s independent status. It is a closeness that borders on merging, but that never crosses the line. Nearness but not parity or similarity.



SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Share on Facebook Twitter

→ Konstig Bookstore




OLSSON MIKAEL - MIKAEL OLSSON



New Book
ART AND THEORY, 2022

Self-portraiture has a long and meandering history. Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Amalia Ullman, Rafia Santana. If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history. Sinziana Ravini.

Olsson’s self-portraits/selfies (since 2007) challenge the narcissistic use of selfies as well as the status of influencers. Further he destabilizes the composition of a traditional selfie where the eye line is recommended to be one-third down from the top frame. Through play and intuition, Olsson’s images are marked by both intimacy and distance, the role of his own physical presence and the perceptive relationship to the surroundings. Olsson Mikael includes an essay by writer and psychoanalyst Sinziana Ravini.

Photography: Mikael Olsson
Text: Sinziana Ravini
Translation: Christine Antaya
Copy-editing: Mikael Andersson
Design: Malin Augustsson and Mikael Olsson
2022, English, hardcover
64 pages, 21 x 15 cm
ISBN: 9789198672022



MAY 5, 2022

Share on Facebook Twitter

→ ART AND THEORY




GALERIE NORDENHAKE, MARKET ART FAIR, LILJEVALCHS 30 APRIL 2022



AT MARKET 2022 Galerie Nordenhake presents Petra Gipp’s and Mikael Olsson’s exploratory response to the work of Sigurd Lewerentz in a reiteration of their acclaimed presentation at the 2018 Venice Architectural Biennale.

The images of Mikael Olsson are held by the tension between visual faculties and visual conventions, the reality of perception and the reality of vision, of the concrete and the abstract.” Péter Nádas

Olsson’s photographic practice explores the reenactment of history and the presence of the past in current times. Olsson ́s underlying aim is to redefine the genre of classical documentary photography. In the breath of its scope, his investigation into the legacy of Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz (1885-1975) constitutes a catalog raisonne. At the same time Olsson’s lens selects and reveals potent present and ongoing scenes. Each image proposes the site as a stage, a generative space.

Petra Gipp’s sculpture constitutes an interpretation of Lewerentz’s canopy construction at S:t Gertrud and S:t Knuts kapell in Malmö in cross section. Her architectural sculptures are both monumental and subdued. In this work the complexity of the construction and its various volumes are offset by the sculpture’s apparent weightlessness and transparency.
Gipp’s practice is characterised by its fluid transition between architectural case study and freestanding sculpture. She is an internationally celebrated architect in her own right.



APRIL 30, 2022

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→ Galerie Nordenhake, Market Art Fair, Liljevalchs




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