Studio grant holder in Stockholm 1 April – 30 September 2020

Johan Österholm. Born 1983 in Borås, Sweden. Lives and works in Stockholm.

In my artistic practice I use photography as a medium for reflecting on evolving conceptions of what constitutes a nightscape and what counts as “darkness.” I approach the subject of light pollution and nocturnal illumination as a kind of historian of light, carefully combining archival material and archaic photographic processes with the glare of artificial city lights as well as the more enigmatic light of the full moon, which conceals details even as it reveals contours. During my time at Iaspis I want to comb through the material that I’ve amassed during the past few years around the topic of utopias of light and the history of public street lighting. The aim is to develop a new body of photo-sculptural works that hopefully take my practice in new directions.

Johan Österholm, Photo: Josee Pedneault

Johan Österholm received his MFA from Malmö Art Academy in 2016. Previous and upcoming exhibition include: Space Works, Tampere Art Museum (2020), Ethereal Dwellings, Alta Art Space, Malmö (2020), Moonlight, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (2019), Milchstrassenverkehrsordnung, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2019), Osmoscosmos, Centre de la Photographie Genève (2019), Back to the Future, Foam, Amsterdam, C/O Berlin & Mai Manó Ház, Budapest (2018-2019), Screens and Mirrors, Borås Museum of Modern Art (2016) and La Camera: On the Materiality of Photography, Palazzo De’ Toschi, Bologna (2016). He has been awarded several residencies, among them Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin in 2018 and Artists’ Development Programme at EIB Institute, Luxemburg in 2016.

johanosterholm.se