Jockum Nordström
A Stick in the Wood
18 June – 25 September
Moderna Museet
Skeppsholmen, Stockholm
T 46 8 5195 5271
T 46 708 83 89 68 (mobile)
F 46 8 5195 5210
Postal address: Box 16382, 103 27 Stockholm
The visual artist Jockum Nordström (b 1963) is familiar to many of us for his children’s books about Sailor and Pekka. He has lately gained an international reputation for his playful and erotically dreamy drawings and collages, which are also the focus of this exhibition at Moderna Museet.
Jockum Nordström, is a narrator; his sensuous drawings and collages stretch from secret fantasies to the invasive details of everyday life. They move between time and space, between high and low. He makes historic allusions to the imagery of naivism and surrealism, as well as to popular culture. The contemporary art scene has embraced Jockum Nordström’s oeuvre warmly. He took part in the Istanbul Biennale in 2003 and in the prestigious Armory Show in New York earlier this year.
Lars Nittve, Museum Director, Moderna Museet wrote in the Armory Show Press release: “Jockum Nordström has reclaimed two of the most modest techniques – drawing and collage – to achieve an entirely contemporary expression. It´s perfectly natural, when you think about it. What he gives us are stories for grown ups. Dreamy, fabulating, full of leaps from one world or era to the next – and always with an erotic charge. You get the feeling that he makes these pictures for himself. Only. And that we just happen to spot them. That´s how intimate, how personal, they are – while still being so generous.”
A richly illustrated catalogue, with poems chosen by the artist and essays by the exhibition curator, Annika Gunnarsson, and others, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. 120 pages and some 100 images.
