Artist Joakim Sandqvist is awarded the Beckers Art Award 2024
Färgfabriken congratulates Joakim Sandqvist, who has been awarded the Beckers Art Award in 2024, a grant of 200,000 SEK. The grant also includes an exhibition in Färgfabriken´ s main hall as well as an exhibition at KKAM – Höganäs.
Joakim Sandqvist graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2018 and has also studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London and as part of the Maumaus Independent Study Programme in Lisbon. Most recently, he has shown the exhibition Just in Time at Galleri Ping-Pong in his hometown of Malmö.
How does it feel to recieve this year’s Beckers scholarship and how will you use the funds?
It feels amazing! I’ll invest the scholarship money in future artistic projects.
What does your artistic practice relate to?
It’s not an easy question to answer, as constantly reframing what I do is an important part of my process. But you could say that it’s all about how we see things. From the hyper-specific, like how we perceive colour, to how we perceive something based upon the cultural context.
In general, Joakim is interested in the post-industrial world in relation to history and how local conditions are affected by global changes. The relationship between the analogue and the digital is something else that he’s investigating, as well as how technology is affecting how we see things.
He found an inroad to art through philosophy, and his work has a consistently showed an epistemological approach. But instead of becoming a researcher in philosophy, he was attracted by the possibilities offered by art:
“Art provides the scope for greater complexity, in that you get access to something that you don’t anywhere else.”
How does an artistic process start for you?
It often begins in an encounter between a material and a contextual meaning, be it historical, cultural, or linguistic. Often something casual that, when you take a closer look, opens up a story and a question. It could be the view from a train window, stones on a beach, or a piece of paper in my pocket.
What media do you work with?
I work with a wide range of media, but I mainly use sculpture, video, photography, drawing, and textile weaving. The choice of material comes from the ideas and contexts I work with. In my work, the history of the material itself is often central to the work.
In the work Workers, Settlers, Hippies and Imaginary Lovers from 2018, for example, a pair of ripped jeans can reflect how the meaning of an object changes and leads to what Joakim calls a “distorted image”. Jeans were originally workwear worn by American settlers in the late 19th century. Since the 1980s, ripped jeans have been produced as part of the commercial fashion industry.
What will you show at Färgfabriken?
The large space makes it possible to display several of my larger-scale projects, which feels great. Among other things, I’ll show a number of video works, woven pieces, sculptures, and drawings. There will be a selection of previous works, and I also have plans to complete some new ones.
You find the complete Jury statement here as well as more information about the artist!