29 August – 27 September

When the pandemic reached Sweden in early March, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts' graduation exhibitions met the same fate as basically all other activities that require people to gather and meet. They were canceled, postponed or recast in an online format. This year's exhibitions were supposed to open at the end of May in two different locations – the bachelor's exhibition at Färgfabriken and the master's exhibition at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. That didn't happen.

Now they will open at the end of August instead, both at the Academy of Fine Arts. Much is different, but one thing that is almost certain is that the exhibitions will follow the social choreography that we have become accustomed to in recent months, represented by two meters of distance and the ban on public gatherings of more than 50 people.

"Accessibility may be limited, but the fact that the exhibitions are opening at all is a success for everyone involved. A special thank you goes to the students and the teams around the exhibitions, who quickly managed to adapt to the new conditions, and to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, who honored our good collaboration by finding a new time in its program," writes Fredrik Ehlin, Pro-Rector at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, in his foreword to the catalogue of the graduation exhibitions.

"It is easy to underestimate the importance of being able to carry out the graduation exhibitions. Our education in liberal arts certainly includes other exhibition opportunities, but it is with these exhibitions that the students' work is definitely exposed to the art public and that they are given the opportunity to formulate a position in the public that, at best, contributes to reformulating it."

Framed by the current regulations, the final exhibitions will look different. But whatever happens, an attempt is presented to continue developing the art public on the premises of art and the exhibition, which – despite all attempts to survive in digital formats and in the openings of urban space – has recently been severely crushed by the pandemic.

“Even in the exhibitions, the students’ artistic processes are shown to have an extraordinary sustainability,” continues Fredrik Ehlin. “What we encounter are hardly reactions to a crisis, but different artistry that has developed by seeking its own path and that here collaborates based on the simple premise that they were educated during the same time and in the same environment and that they now occupy a room together with their art in order to be able to move on. That is what a graduating class at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts usually is: a heterogeneous, contradictory and diverse composition of artistry.”