ISSUES

Simon is a painter who puts his immediate surroundings and objects through a world-transcending painting-machine.

In a bathroom, a comb is standing on its teeth, elsewhere an unreal light splits a facade in two. The bottom half reflects rows of houses and the top, an endless night sky.

Sharp light enters a room through a window and on the table, a mirror reflects a surface not found in the room. Elsewhere, marquees seem to be pointing downwards to the faraway ground.

A shadow denies entry and redirects toward an illuminated exit. Elsewhere, the sun sets over an axe.

In Simon’s show, the vague reminiscence brought from painting to painting puts you in that other world, where its stories unfold in the mind of the beholder. Where, for example, the magic realism found in Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’s movies have brought fascinating insights to the human mind through told narratives in impossible scenarios, painting is happening to you. Simon Wadsted’s skillful paintings generously balance the infinite possibilities that painting offers, with the spectator’s ability to create stories in their own minds.

SIMON WADSTED was born 1994 in Stockholm, where he works and lives. He has a master in fine art from The Royal Institute of Art and in 2022 he was awarded the Maria Bonnier Dahlin scholarship and presentation at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm. Elsewhere is his first solo show at a gallery after graduating. His solo show at Galleri Mejan (2021) was titled Mellan hund och varg (Between dog and wolf). He has participated in group shows such as Stranger than Fiction (2023), Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm; Ett hölje som kan vara svårt att få syn på (2024), Cap Gallery, Stockholm; Snön är ett värmande täcke (2023), Judarskogen, Bromma and Staden (2022), Körsbärsgården, Burgsvik, Gotland.