Sergey Schvemberger & Mattias Johansson – a Russian artist and a Swedish photographer.


28 April 2001 23 September 2001

Two parallel exhibitions
Project rooms, Färgfabriken

Artists: Sergey Schvemberger respektive Matthias Johansson


An exhibition by Russian artist Sergey Schvemberger will open in Färgfabriken’s two front project rooms on April 28th, coinciding with Jan Håfström’s Walker in the main hall.


Schvemberger’s background is in engraving, and he is regarded as one of Russia’s finest graphic artists. His xylographs have been the subject of a number of international exhibitions and have featured in a series of specially edited books, where Schvemberger has worked with the texts of Shakespeare and Homer, among other things. He has a solid grounding in traditional Russian engraving, but chose at an early stage to develop the medium towards a fragmented imagery of a very singular character. Later on, he was drawn to other and newer art forms, stretching from performance art and painting to video and computer animation. The interesting thing is that he has brought his graphic work with him into the new art forms. Taken together, they constitute a richly varied and very unusual body of work. Schvemberger also organises exhibitions of other artists’ work, and holds the post of director at the new contemporary arts centre in St. Petersburg. He is also the head of the new Curator School at St. Petersburg University. The exhibition at Färgfabriken will be his first in the west where all of his activities have been gathered together for one show. Sergey Schvemberger will be present at Färgfabriken on the opening day.

As a bridge between Jan Håfström’s and Sergey Schvemberger’s exhibitions, an installation by photographer Matthias Johansson will be held in the inner project room, of photographs taken during Håfström’s two trips to Russia prior to his exhibition at Färgfabriken. Johansson, whose work featured at Malmö Konsthall in conjunction with the Louise Bourgeois show there, not only documented Håfström’s work, but also tuned the trips into his own projects by participating as an observer. This unique photographic material, made up of a vast number of snapshots, has now been reviewed and arranged for the exhibition at Färgfabriken. It will also feature prominently in a book being produced by Färgfabriken for Håfström’s show.