Johan Österholm
Concealer
Some Moon Walks
Antumbra
Peculiar Motions at Dusk
Mare Desideri
Untitled (Family Portraits)
Johan Österholm has a strong interest in the history of photography, the photographic process and its ability to speak to something that lies beyond the present day: of the traces that previous generations have left behind, and those that we ourselves will leave.
Österholm predominantly works with large format cameras and photosensitive materials in order to appropriate and visualize traces and passages through time. His contemplative practice spans from resurrecting his great-grandfather’s glass negatives to a typological series depicting buildings as repositories for memories.
In the series Untitled (Family Portraits), portraits of several generations are composited with Österholm’s own image. Our appearance and expression are an emerging picture of who we are, what we commonly call, “self.” This “self” takes many generations to create. Österholm’s subtle portrait appears haunted, exposing ancestral ghosts who follow their next descendant.
Österholm’s believes in an alchemical potential in moonlight. He uses nocturnal illumination to activate obsolete objects by exposing them to the glow of the full moon. This system was first used by Österholm to bring new life to glass negatives and positives that were created by his great-grandfather in the early 1900s, which depict the night sky. Next, he collected shards of glass from abandoned greenhouses, coated them in silver gelatin, and transformed them from collectors of sunlight into moon gatherers. Österholm continues to explore the infinite possibilities for transformation that is imbued in the reflected light of our closest celestial body, the moon.
Johan Österholm was born in 1983. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Johan Österholm, born in Sweden 1983.
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art, Malmö Art Academy 2014-2016
Bachelor of Fine Art, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts 2010-2013
Gestaltande Fotografi, Gamleby School of Photography 2009-2010
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Night Lights (Project Room), Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milano, Italy 2019
Apparent Magnitude, Dorothée Nilsson Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2018
Under Dark Skies, fotogalleriet [format], Malmö, Sweden 2017
Peculiar Motion’s at Dusk, KHM Gallery, Malmö, Sweden 2016
Family Portraits, Landskrona Photography Festival, Landskrona, Sweden 2015
Lunagrams, NOPX Gallery, The Others Fair, Turin, Italy 2014
Selected Works 2010-2011, Konstforum, Norrköping, Sweden 2012
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (in selection)
Vista Point. Re-connecting Nature, Kunstverein KunstHaus Potsdam, Germany 2020
Space Works, Tampere Art Museum, Finland 2020
Ethereal Dwellings (duo with Gonçalo Sena), Alta Art Space, Malmö, Sweden 2020
The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 2019
Space is the Place, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany 2019
OSMOSCOSMOS, Centre de la Photographie Genève, Switzerland 2019
The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology, McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada 2019
Photo Basel, Dorothée Nilsson Gallery, Switzerland 2019
Moonlight, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden 2019
Back to th Future, The 19th Century in the 21st Century, The Mai Manó House, Budapest, HU 2019
Back to the Future, The 19th Century in the 21st Century, C/O Berlin, Germany 2018
Sculptural Landscape, Copenhagen Photo Fair, curated by Trine Stephensen, Copenhagen 2018
The Polaroid Project, The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany 2018
Jamais laisser les photos trainer, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milano 2018
Back to the Future, Foam Museum, Amsterdam, NL 2018
The Polaroid Project, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Texas, USA 2017
Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup, Sweden 2017
The Primal Shelter is The Site For Primal Fears, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland 2016
Edstrandska Foundation’s Grant Exhibition, KHM Gallery, Malmö, Sweden 2016
Flyktpunkt, CFF, Stockholm, Sweden 2016
Screens and Mirrors, Borås Art Museum, Sweden 2016
La Camera, On the Materialilty of Photography, Bologna, Italy 2016
Unseen Photo Fair, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Amsterdam, NL 2015
Breadfield Gallery, Malmö, Sweden 2015
AIPAD Photo Fair, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, New York, US 2015
FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, UK 2015
Process as portrait (duo with Gisa Pantel), H. Bergdal Gallery, Malmö, Sweden 2014
Vårsalongen, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 2014
Konstforum 50 år, Konstforum, Norrköping, Sweden 2014
New Nordic Photography, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden 2014
Corso Aperto, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy 2014
New Students Exhibition, Galleri KHM, Malmö Art Academy, Sweden 2014
Maskinen Art Boat, Galleri Maskinen, Umeå/Vasa, Sweden/Finland 2014
Vi tager intet ansvar 3, Udstillingsstedet Q, Copenhagen, Denmark 2014
SET RISE Bachelor of Fine Arts 2013, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden 2013
Tacita Dean Workshop Exhibition, Villa Iris, Santander, Spain 2013
ISSP 2013 Exhibition, Elina Brotherus Class, Kuldīga, Latvia 2013
Spring Exhibition, Umeå Konsthögskola, Sweden 2012
Dalakonst 11, Rättviks Kulturhus, Sweden 2011
You have to dance like nobody’s watching, Galleri La Pis, Gothenburg, Sweden 2010
Polaroids, Lettlands fotomuseum, Riga, Latvia 2008
PUBLICATIONS
Space is the Place, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2019
OSMOSCOSMOS, Centre de la Photographie Genève, 2019
C/O Berlin Magazine, essay by Caroline von Courten, 2018
Camera Austria “Forum”, September Issue, 2018
BE Magazine 25, essay by Jens Asthoff, 2018
Monopol Magazine , “Watchlist”, May Issue, 2018
The Polaroid Project: Art & Technology, Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Thames&Hudson, 2017
Capture Photography Festival 2017 (Editorial essay), 2017
Malmö Art Academy Year Book 2016 with MFA thesis Objects in the Rear-View Mirror, 2016
Screens and Mirrors, 2016
LA Camera:Sulla materialità della fotografia/On the materiality of photography, Italy 2016
Lucida Journal, Queensland Centre for Photography, Australia 2015
Catalogue FIVE, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Germany 2015
Unseen Photo Fair (cat.) The Netherlands 2015
Landskrona Fotofestival (cat.) Sweden 2015
Sight. So Close. fotogalleriet [format] & Breadfield, Malmö, Sweden 2015
Archive of Visions and Actions: Contemporary Art from Sweden, Imago Mundi 2015
Eyelid Reports, Fondazione Antonio Ratti / Mousse Publishing 2014
Kite Aerial Photography, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts 2014
New Nordic Photography, Hasselblad Foundation 2014
Vårsalongen, Liljevalchs 2014
SET RISE Bachelor of Fine Arts, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts 2013
GRANTS, AWARDS and RESIDENCIES
IASPIS, Stockholm, 2020
The Swedish Art Council’s International Exchange Grant, 2019
Helge Ax:son Johnson Grant, 2019
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2018
PLAT(T)FORM Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2017
Anna Kockum Grant, Malmö Art Museum, 2016
EIB Artists’ Development Programme mentored by Darren Almond, European
Investment Bank, Luxembourg, 2016
One-year working Grant, Swedish Art council 2016
Helge Ax:son Johnson Grant 2015
The Portfolio Review Award, Landskrona Fotofestival 2014
Swedish Arts Council’s International Grant 2014
Ester Lindahls Travel Grant 2014
XX CSAV Artist Research Laboratory. Tacita Dean – Comoggardising – The benefit of creative indolence, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy 2014
Taller Tacita Dean, Fundación Botín, Santander, Spain 2013
The Baltic donation’s International Grant, Umeå Universitet 2012
The Baltic donation’s International Grant, Umeå Universitet 2011
Ragnar och Birgit Åhléns Grant 2011
COLLECTIONS
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Hasselblad Foundation, Sweden
Mannheimer-Swartling Collection, Sweden
Private collections in Sweden and USA