Per B Sundberg: Stockholm

We are very proud to announce Per B Sundberg’s first exhibition at Andréhn-Schiptjenko. 

Per B Sundberg has been noted for his innovative and experimental attitude towards the ceramic material and this new exhibition will present a large number of new works.

The exhibition at Andréhn-Schiptjenko will show new objects modelled on already existing porcelain figures, where the physical quality of the clay has been underlined by colours and surfaces recalling substances such as chocolate, plastic, earth, sperm and snow.

During his time as a designer at Orrefors glassworks (1994-2005), Per B Sundberg started making shapes that could be perceived as vases or urns, all of them entitled Objects with hole. Through these he investigated different ways of breaking down the expectations of how glass should look. In order to make his experimenting more understandable or legitimate, he created something recognisable. With the new works, shown for the first time in the exhibition at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, he has continued working with the same approach to the ceramic material’s physical aspect and with different glazes.

A third group of works in the exhibition consists of objects based on human sculls with added forms resembling houses, bombs and mushrooms. Some of these objects have kept the colours of the different types of clay, while others have been glazed in dark tones, awakening associations to earth, stone, nature, catastrophe, life and play.

In 2014, Per B Sundberg was awarded The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s grant for his groundbreaking work and techniques. The committee’s motivation was as follows:

Per B Sundberg was groundbreaking already in his works for his graduate exhibition at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in 1990. His large bathtub covered in flowery stickers showed that ceramic art was on its way to breaking all its inferiority complexes. He is an artist pushing the boundaries for the possible, both artistically and technically. He is technically brilliant, both as ceramist and glassmaker. He has developed new techniques for glass making such as fabula and litograal, flowing with stories, many-layered, pleasurable, treacherous and uninhibited. Furthermore, he has challenged the perception of good taste and shown new ways for ceramic art. His constellations and adaptations of history’s remnants of kitsch have made us view ”innocent” knick-knacks with new eyes.

Per B Sundberg recently participated in the exhibition Otherworldy at Magasin III Stockholm Konsthall. He works in the old porcelain fabric in Gustavsberg and in 2011 he had a large solo show at the Gustavsbergs Konstall.