In this summer's exhibition at Wanås Konst representation and abstraction meet with the display of Martin Jacobson’s enormous hand-painted backdrops from playwright Jonas Gardell’s show Queen of F*cking Everything.
In 2018 Martin Jacobson was commissioned to paint backdrops for Queen of F*cking Everything by Swedish playwright Jonas Gardell and to fuse his artistic vision with the historic theatrical tradition of hand painted scenography. He painted three sets, made for large contemporary stages, measuring up to 10 by 16 meters. Jacobson took on the challenge by combining inspiration from baroque theater and religious imagery with his own characteristic turned up colors and motifs from popular culture. The results are magical landscapes with pink skies, billowing clouds and glittering water as well as the basilica in Florence with Brunelleschi’s cupola appearing as a miracle, both familiar and strangely odd. Inside the exhibition space at Wanås, the cathedral-like hay barn from the 18th century, the sets are put on display with a new focus as monumental paintings. The large scale produces an immediate colorful encounter that the viewer can walk into and be immersed in. Jacobson creates a bridge between the past and present and has for several years explored landscape in his work with paintings that invite us into an emotional, unknown terrain.
For more information, please visit https://www.wanaskonst.se/
