Martin Jacobson

Overview

Martin Jacobson, "Magdalene III", 2024. Oil on canvas, 210 x 120 cm (82 5/8 x 47 1/4 in.)

Dreams, myths and archetypical images all have in common that they are a door into a shared human consciousness, to experiences unbound by time. Jacobson’s imagery can be read as an associative stream, generating from these shared experiences. With a desire to deepen the understanding of how we perceive ourselves in relation to the world surrounding us, Jacobson delves with his theatrical and saturated expression deeper into this dichotomy.

Starting with existing images on archetypical motifs and themes such as sunsets, forests, mythological images and architectural forms and then recombining these elements, Martin Jacobson creates new motifs, often in stark and an almost unreal range of colours. Interpreting these originals is a way for Jacobson to create an image that is both new and old, familiar and unknown. A concentrate of light- and colour-phenomena, cultural references and emotional reactions take place in scenographic world where, just as on stage, fiction and reality meet and the double nature of beauty is allowed to be both seductive and disturbing.

Martin Jacobson (b. 1978, Sweden) has since his graduation from Malmö Art Academy (Malmö, Sweden) in 2005 been exhibited at numerous solo and group exhibitions, both in Scandinavia and internationally. Recent projects include a set design with monumentally scaled paintings, made for a stage show originally, presented at Wanås Konst in Sweden and an extensive solo exhibition at Vandalorum (Värnamo, Sweden) His works have also been shown in the exhibition Martin Jacobson: Excursions at the Nordic Watercolour Museum, (Skärhamn, Sweden), Martin Jacobson: The Traveller’s Guide to the Other Side at La Conservera (Murcia, Spain) and in the exhibition The Collectors, curated by Elmgreen & Dragset in the Danish Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

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