JOHAN GRÖNLUND (b. 1981)

First and foremost, I am a painter. My work will often center around the simple, basic aspects of life. A thematically stripped down type of painting that brings the depicted closer to something resembling, in a Platonic view, the actual idea behind the motif.

The properties of painting include the mundane yet magical ability to capture a piece of the world in surface and paint. The visual as well as the experienced. Representation in painting always transforms the subject, to paint is to place something within a historic and cultural tradition. Regardless of how honest the starting point for the representation may be, every rendering in picture will distance the represented from the real world to what could be called the world of pictures. Often this indirect route via the world of pictures is the starting point for my own work, the world as reflected in pictures. A particular humour also has its place in my painting and will at times emerge almost as an inevitable consequence of the seriousness.

The communicative aspect of art is overrated but art has a higher purpose, as it were, in giving physical form to the both elusive and universally human in experiences, thoughts and views. The main subject is - inescapably - the human being. Through countless ways of approaching what is fundamentally a tragic state, the transience of time and the fleeting nature of existence, painting along with the other artforms can shift our perspective on life. Experiences of art that are incorporated into one's character and become part of how one relates to the world.


Selected exhibitions

  • Young Art, City Art Gallery (2015, Vaasa)
  • Spiraali, Nelimarkka Museum (2013, Alajärvi)
  • "Ars Nova Botnica", Culturhouse Orrela (Teuva, 2010, 2011)
  • In Case of Elämä, City Art Gallery (Vaasa, 2010)
  • O/Normal, Luckan (Helsinki, 2010)
  • at the Union Station, Galleria Carree (Kuopio, 2009)
  • Merijärvi Library (Solo exhibition) (Merijärvi, 2008)
  • Pyhäjoki Library (Solo exhibition) (Pyhäjoki, 2008)
  • In the Village, Stundars (Solf/Sulva, Vasa/ Vaasa 2008)
  • Natureal, Tobaksmagasinet (Jakobstad/Pietarsaari, 2007)
  • Class Meeting, Seinäjoki Art Hall (Seinäjoki, 2007)
  • Kuvataiteen valtakunta 06 (Republic of the Visual Arts 06), Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova (Åbo/Turku, 2006)
  • Exam Exhibition, Swedish Polytechnic/ Department for Fine Arts, Media and Design (Nykarleby/Uusikaarlepyy, 2006)
  • Spring Exhibition, After Eight (Jakobstad/Pietarsaari, 2005)
  • Represented Bild-02 at the 20th year anniversary of the Department for Fine Arts, Media and Design, Town Hall Gallery (Nykarleby/Uusikaarlepyy, 2004)
  • Selected for The Three Cities Exhibition (2018, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2007, 2004, 2003 and 2001)