Jesper Nyrén

Written by Art & Culture

Jesper Nyrén explores in his paintings how color and texture create spatiality, and how the experience of a landscape can form new spaces in painting. In the visually rich and tactile surfaces of the paintings, we can become involved in a nature with both our gaze and our bodies. The compositions seem to consist of building blocks that support and reinforce each other. Each building block has its own color tone and weight, and together they form a structure that is equally parts light and architecture. Jesper Nyrén was born in 1979 and studied at the Royal Institute of Art from 2002-2007. He lives and works in Stockholm.

What are you working on right now? Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
My exhibition during Stockholm art week is at Teatergrillen. It consists of paintings on canvas and paper. Right now I am working with an exhibition that will take place in Bohusläns museum in the summer (together with Katarina Löfström) and a commissioned work for a subway station where I work with ceramics.

What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
I always loved painting and drawing and this thing of being absorbed in that private, slow process. I think that over the years I have come to concentrate more and more on the most fundamental elements of that process - the materials and color themselves, scale, composition and atmosphere

What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
I work with different places in mind. To try and recreate a light or an atmosphere that I have experienced but through color and relations rather than figuration. I work with a group of paintings at a time. Before I start to work on the actual paintings there’s a lot of sketching and trying different ideas. And then as I start painting almost all of those ideas fail. So I have to work my way back to something. It’s a long process of changing and adjusting and going over everything many times. It is that long and slow process that I want. To spend time painting.

Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
I have made a few works called ”Notes”. They consist of many paintings and sometimes also photographs that are hung in a long line. The separate parts are almost monochrome but are painted in very different techniques, with different materials and tempo and so forth. Then I choose which parts will be included and in which order. It’s like modular paintings that can be changed and rearranged infinitely and also be composed in relation to the space where they are installed. I like that because it´s a very intuitive and experimental process.

What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
It’s great! A lot of good exhibitions to see and a nice and familiar atmosphere

Do you have a favorite Swedish Artist?
Barbro Östlihn

Do you have a favorite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
Teatergrillen of course :)