Viktor Rosdahl was born in 1980, lives and works in Malmö, and studied at Malmö Art Academy. He has participated in exhibitions at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, Ystad Art Museum and Hannover Kunstverein, and has had solo shows at the Christian Larsen and Arnstedt galleries as well as at Landings in Norway.
“Viktor Rosdahl’s paintings seems to thrive in the most unexpected situations – in the hole in a broken table top from Ikea, in a shower curtain or a damp-damaged tarpaulin. Out of soot-blackened, deserted industrial landscapes the old-master-like paintings emerge bearing titles such as Wedding Night at SKF, My years as a soccer wife and Landing/Shelter for Aniara. In the borderland between the personal and the political a much-longed-for landing site is prepared for the wandering spaceship of the dream of the welfare state.”
Cecilia Widenheim, Director of IASPIS
In the exhibition, Viktor Rosdahl is showing the works Songs from the engine and Echoes from a distant cry. Viktor Rosdahl moves freely between historical references, depictions of contemporary life and perspectives on the future. In his paintings he depicts a highly ramified array of thoughts, creating an atmosphere that is ominously absorbing. The traditional linen canvas has been replaced by found materials such as plastic bags, silk or oilcloth. Viktor Rosdahl draws his inspiration from some of the early paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, but equally from postcards of old Swedish industrial landscapes or YouTube clips of the Chilean folk singer and activist Victor Jara. His pictures reflect a desire to expose injustices in society, and his attention to detail combines the subtle with the brutal.