Jockum Nordstr M

Originally published on the occasion of the 2010 exhibition at David Zwirner in New York, Who is sleeping on my pillow marked the first time Andersson and Nordstrom presented their work in concurrent solo shows. The book showcases their work from the late 1980s to 2010 in over two hundred full-color plates, as well as numerous reproductions of family snapshots and source material. The Swedish artist couple Mamma Andersson and Jockum Nordstrom have been at the forefront of contemporary figurative art since the late 1980s. Updating Vuillard for a post-Hitchcock age, Andersson paints beguilingly eerie interiors and landscapes. Nordstrom’s detailed collages, watercolors, and drawings occupy a more folkloric realm peopled by historical and contemporary characters enacting sexual and social roles across broad narrative panoramas. Included in Who is sleeping on my pillow are texts by Paolo Colombo and Anders Kruger, a poem by Stig Claesson, and an interview with Nordstrom by Marcel Dzama. As Colombo notes in his accompanying essay, “The miracle is that Jockum and Mamma spent more than half of their life together, and that over the years their complicity has guided them into the artists they are, each the complement and the best sounding board for the other.” The publication was reissued to coincide with Nordstrom’s 2014 exhibition, For the insects and the hounds, at David Zwirner in London, and Andersson’s 2015 presentation, Behind the Curtain, at the gallery in New York.

Jockum Nordstrom is one of the most renowned Swedish artists of his generation. Stylistically the artist's works are based on poor materials like paper or cardboard, and developed in a manner that is naive as well as erudite, both descriptive and enigmatic. Dotted with objects, animals and people, they tell us stories that are elegant, endearing, and rather disconcerting. The publication comprises almost a hundred works of Jockum Nordstrom, unfolding a comprehensive panorama of his oeuvre, from the earlier pencil drawings to his more recent collages, including the architectural models and photographic collages.

Pseudo-naove and funny, Jockum Nordstrvm's works compress a bundle of simultaneous narratives in a single frozen frame. He says, "A single picture of mine may often be based on a multiple of originals. I am constantly looking at my immediate surroundings as well as books." Art, photographs, people, plants, architecture, patterns, textiles, sex, and history all play an important role in his compositions. His enigmatic scenes, rendered in drawings and mixed-media pieces in watercolor, gouache, and collage, seem at once old-fashioned and modern. Lucas Cranach and James Ensor are longstanding influences, as are folk art and Surrealism. His art seems to portray suppressed fantasies fighting their way into the consciousnesses of the flattened-out figures. Fantasy has the power to transform banal, alienating tasks into moments that shimmer with humor and poignancy.

"The creators of Loyal magazine and its eponymous gallery celebrate five years with this, their first book. Loyal And His Band brings together a stunning variety of work from more than 20 artists--it's a collection of drawings, paintings, photographs, humorous, poignant stories and interviews with many who have been part of the Loyal family, including Matt Leines, Jules de Balincourt, Misaki Kawai, Wes Lang, Eddie Martinez, Yun-Fei Ji, Taylor McKimens, Jockum Nordstrom, Mamma Andersson, Stephen Shore, Miroslav Tichy, Brian Belott and more"--Publisher.

Pseudo-naove and funny, Jockum Nordstrvm's works compress a bundle of simultaneous narratives in a single frozen frame. He says, "A single picture of mine may often be based on a multiple of originals. I am constantly looking at my immediate surroundings as well as books." Art, photographs, people, plants, architecture, patterns, textiles, sex, and history all play an important role in his compositions. His enigmatic scenes, rendered in drawings and mixed-media pieces in watercolor, gouache, and collage, seem at once old-fashioned and modern. Lucas Cranach and James Ensor are longstanding influences, as are folk art and Surrealism. His art seems to portray suppressed fantasies fighting their way into the consciousnesses of the flattened-out figures. Fantasy has the power to transform banal, alienating tasks into moments that shimmer with humor and poignancy.

"Exhibition dates, National Gallery of Art, September 1, 2013-January 5, 2014, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, January 28 through May 17, 2015."