A Year in Stockholm Through an Icelander’s Eyes
Icelandic artist Loji Höskuldsson creates a site-specific work for Market Art Fair 2025, inspired by his experience of living in Stockholm for a year.
With a gentle nod to Claude Monet’s ‘The Water Lilies’ in the Musée de l’Orangerie, Icelandic artist Loji Höskuldsson is creating a site-specific polyptych, to be shown with Copenhagen’s V1 Gallery at Market Art Fair 2025, inspired by his experience of living in Stockholm for a year. The six works depict a year of living close to the Stockholm Archipelago, “Skärgården,” in Höskuldsson’s iconic style of embroidery, spanning the seasons but celebrating different times of the year in each piece.
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Courtesy of V1 Gallery and Loji Höskuldsson
The project will be Höskuldsson’s largest embroidery to date, measuring over 7.8 meters. It will depict the Swedish landscape, flora, fauna, regional products, traditions, and customs as experienced through the eyes of an Icelander. Elements such as midsommarstång, smörgåsbord, Volvo, kräfta, älgskylt, kanelbullar, blåsippa, snödroppar, skata, ABBA, envelopes from Skatteverket, snaps glasses, Barsebäck, Robyn, Systembolaget, Hilma af Klint, lussebulle, Bergman, lingonberries, Saab, and Ahlgrens bilar appear embroidered in the works.
Using everyday objects and motifs is typical for Höskuldsson’s work, where the poetic is found in the mundane and elevated to magic. The human experience, complex and often challenging, is met with a quiet optimism in Höskuldsson’s embroideries. His works offer a disarming and contemplative view of our existence.
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Courtesy of V1 Gallery and Loji Höskuldsson
Contemplation is familiar to Loji Höskuldsson, as his process is excruciatingly slow, taking days and months to complete. Stitch by stitch, compositions emerge on burlap, giving Höskuldsson ample time to reflect on the motives at hand. This meditative creative process is embedded in the work itself, encouraging a reflective and intuitive response from the viewer. Slowing our cognitive response to the work leaves space for a more tactile engagement. It is a form of storytelling rooted in craft tradition, yet harnessed to explore current issues. A kind of Dogme approach to contemporary art, this process invites a slow-down that is a rare pleasure in today’s hectic society.
About the gallery
