MARKUS EMILSSON
CLOSER
16 JAN - 22 FEB

Closer is an object of strength,
a reminder that we exist for one another
and that we need each other to perform the dances of life.
We are created, along with the world around us, in an organic and unsteady motion.

We are very proud to open our first exhibition with Markus Emilsson. The exhibition Closer consists of a series of new glass sculptures. The works are both strong and fragile, and they challenge the notion of what glass can be, and what glass can do.

Markus Emilsson’s sculptures are charged with thoughts and questions about life and humanity. They bend, embrace, reject and resist. The glass is alternately transparent and reflective, and it becomes a symbol of the human ability to express both flexibility and resistance. Closer is based on ideas of proximity, of the complexity and necessity of living in a vivid world in order to be challenged, to grow, and to become stronger. The near-impossible shapes are manifested in the seemingly infinitely malleable glass. But anyone who has become intimate with the organism of glass knows its intrinsic unpredictability and how it has played its makers throughout the ages. Markus Emilsson creates magic with his sculptures. He moulds the impossible and he challenges the observer’s idea of glass as a material, while at the same time offering an opportunity to immerse the mind in the complexity of community, in the concept that without each other, we are nothing. That we become through each other.

An interest in human interaction is the underlying theme of Markus Emilsson’s artistic practice. Having a background in film- and television production, he has been working exclusively with artistic projects for the last ten years. Emilsson has had solo shows and has participated in numerous group shows all around Sweden. He has created public commissions, curated exhibitions and he has been a guest speaker both in Sweden and internationally. In the fall of 2019 he was co-curator for the exhibition Sydosten at Kalmar Konstmuseum. The meeting of people and the question of where and how art meets its audience is a recurring theme for Emilsson. There is often an avantgarde undertone in his projects and he has created great shows by letting his works move out of the typical gallery or museum and into unexpected places.

Five years ago he moved from Stockholm to Växjö, which further fueled his interest for local tales, and for the historical region known as the Kingdom of Crystal (Glasriket). Glass is his primary artistic material, and the craft and its history is given new life and relevance through Emilsson’s unique and highly personal sculptures.

Markus Emilsson was born in Norrtälje in 1973 and currently lives and works in Växjö. He has a Masters degree from Konstfack, and many years of glasswork training in schools in Kosta and Orrefors. Markus Emilsson has received a number of grants, the latest in 2019 from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.