AUGUST NILSSON

OFÖRRÄTTAT FÖRVÄRV

26 JANUARY – 19 FEBRUARY 2023

REVIEWED BY
OMKONST
1 FEBRUARY 2023

It feels good to have nature surrounding you, like when rain hits hard from all directions. The firewood needs to be collected, the fire needs to be lit, and sometimes the water pump needs attention regardless of the weather. It is exactly then, when I have to force myself to get out, that I find my motifs. Even though it is a privilege to live in the forest, where my father-in-law grew up, in a cottage that remained empty for eight years, one is entitled to complain about the weather and some general ailments. But automatically my focus shifts from a naïve city dweller to a foolish optimist. Maybe, in a couple of years, I will no longer be all thumbs. Until then, I keep on painting. That’s how it is, an unvoluntary proletarian with some green tucked away in the studio. There are an endless number of motifs here, and some mornings I wake up with a sense of fullness, but never uninterested.

Welcome to August Nilsson’s first exhibition at the gallery. With a series of new paintings, the artist gives the viewer a pointer of what can happen when you keep your eyes open to life’s big and small miracles.

August Nilsson conveys encounters between the past and the present, personalities from previous times show up unexpectedly through his palette, and strange creatures peek from behind trees and from streams of waters in his condensed paintings. Despite his restless background, August Nilsson discovered a calm haven in his father-in-law’s old cottage in the forests of south-west Sweden. There he found what was needed to let his artistic sharpness be channeled through his paintings. It is a rare sight to meet his imagery. There is a clash between the old world and the new, but it feels nevertheless remarkably obvious. The viewer is safely guided through colors and compositions that speak of tattoo art as well as folklore. The coloring is vehement, but there is a fairy tale calmness in his works that allows them to come across as highly reasonable. With inspiration from the skies of Pierre Bonnard and the nature lyric of Hans Wigert, August Nilsson has created his own pictorial language and an equally personal sphere of motifs.

AUGUST NILSSON, born 1986 in Ystad, lives and works in Simlångsdalen, Sweden. August Nilsson received his education at Valand Academy, Gothenburg (2018); Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (2015); and at Pernby School of Painting, Stockholm (2012). His work has been shown at Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg; Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Österlen; Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Domeij Gallery, Galleri Arsenalsgatan 3, Konstnärshuset, and Crumheaven, Stockholm. August Nilsson has received grants from Konstnärsnämnden and Gustaf och Ida Unmans Donationsfond. He is represented at Sweden Public Art Agency; County Council in Uppsala; Värmdö kommun; Volvo Konstförening; Handelsbankens konstförening; and Nordea, Sweden; among others.