Jakob Ojanen

Jakob Ojanen is interested in the images that surround us. But it is not the advertising slogans or the public works of art that enter his oeuvre, but abstract forms – the erased and painted over images that are everywhere in the public sphere. To create an abstract image, one might as well erase an already existing image, rather than building it from scratch. Ojanen collects these "non-images" from the public, treats them, paints them, and thus blurs not only the images themselves, but also the boundary between photography and painting.

Jakob Ojanen (b. 1980) received his Master of Fine Arts from the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, in 2008. Since then he has exhibited in galleries and art centers throughout Sweden and has been awarded several major scholarships, including the prestigious Bærtling Scholarship in 2008 and the Åke Andréhn stipend in 2019.