Beckers Art Award 2020

Solo Exhibition at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden
2020.01.24–2020.03.15

Installation view, Färgfabriken

Jury Statement written by Mårten Castenfors

Fredrik Åkum certainly has nerve when it comes to his colours and brushwork. Carefully laid cloth on the studio floor becomes a stage for the painted dance of acrylics over the surface of the cloth.

The impatient rhythms of colour emerge almost manically with repetitions, variations, and gaps – an intricate interaction between big and small.

This is an uplifting painting on the border between the figurative and the abstract, between the random and the absolutely controlled, between the light and the darkness. This is a painting that demands obsession and passion – something so amazingly beautiful, marked by a complex perseverance.

Åkum undoubtedly captures us with his plant-based palette of colours, as well as with his fanzines and small art books – his parallel artistic track – which invite visitors to explore their own creativity. High or low, Åkum’s presence is undeniable.

Fredrik Åkum is awarded the 2020 Beckers Art Award for his ability to make us understand through his palette that there is so much more in the beauty of painting. Indeed, there is a completely new world of nuances.

Press

Review in Dagens Nyheter
Review in Om Konst