Michael Johansson

Michael Johansson (b. 1975, Trollhättan, Sweden) is known for his distinctive style of sculpture and installation, which combines found objects and everyday items to create new forms, structures and geometric patterns. 

In his works, Johansson deals with ordinary objects we all recognize, but in a way far from the ordinary. Driven by the agenda to densify the world, objects are morphed into precisely stacked rectangular shapes, connected to a certain place, where their original purpose are transformed into catalysts of new meanings.

Found objects within the same colour range are reconstructed into a homogeneous image of a fictional life reinforced by our collective imaginary: the compressed scenery from a time gone by. The newfound rigid order separates the objects from their usage, and invites us to a shared space where the familiar meets the unfamiliar.

After studies at the Art Academy in Trondheim, Norway, and Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, Germany, Michael Johansson took his masters degree at Malmö Art Academy, Sweden, 2005. Since then he has taken part of several residencies and exhibited frequently both within and outside of Sweden. Johansson currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Some of Johansson’s most important solo exhibitions include Museum Voorlinden (NL), Galleri Andersson/Sandström (SE), Göteborg Art Museum (SE), Helsinki Contemporary (FI), Ystads Art Museum (SE) and Vigeland-museet (NO), and group exhibitions at Malmö Art Museum (SE), Bergen Art Museum (NO), Aeroplastics (BE), Royal British Society of Sculptors (UK), Galerie Filomena Soares (PT), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (RU) and Meessen de Clercq (BE). He has also carried out several major public commissions both in Sweden and abroad.