What does the grid do?

For a few years now I have been working on a series of abstract paintings that are all based on a form of grid that I learned as a young art student. It is a working method and at the same time a tool that has been used throughout art history by artists when composing/arranging pictorial surfaces.

In the exhibition, I explore the visual structure of the grid and expand it in space, as well as reflect on its significance in our time. This is considering that we live in a time where we are constantly connected to a worldwide data network via our screens.

The paintings are executed on poplar panels and the installation in the rooms highlights them as objects. Where they are handled, almost as in a storage room or an archive. At the same time, they are exposed to alternative (queer) positionings that articulate an instability – before the gaze of the constantly connected viewer.

What does the grid do? is also a practice-based artistic research project that I am running with support from the Swedish Research Council, hosted at the Malmö Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition is intended to be seen as the spatial/visual embodiment of the research and the entire project is planned to be presented later in 2022 in the form of a book.

Matt's Leiderstam

Matts Leiderstam (b. 1956), lives and works in Stockholm and Malmö.

Some selected solo presentations from recent years:

Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest (2021; Tomelilla Konsthall (2021); Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris (2021) and Stockholm (2018); Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam (2017 and 2014); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2010); Grazer Kunstverein (2010); Salon MoCAB – Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2008); Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2007); Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (2006); Göteborgs Konsthall (2005); Magasin III, Stockholm (2005). Selected group exhibitions: Malmö Konstmuseum (2021); Borås Konstmuseum (2020); Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2019); Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2018); 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016); Nationalgalleriet, Prague (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2015); Heine Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (2015); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); Gasworks, London (2014); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2013); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011); Gothenburg International Biennale for Contemporary Art (2011); Moderna Museum, Stockholm (2010); Third Guangzhou Triennial (2008)

Leiderstam's works are represented in collections such as: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Gothenburg Art Museum, Iziko – South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Magasin III, Stockholm, Malmö Art Museum, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, MoCAB – Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle

Caption: Matts Leiderstam, What does the grid do? Pine, MDF, iron and paintings done in acrylic and oil on poplar panel. Photo Jean-Baptiste Béranger.