THE KONSTAKA ACADEMY
PRIZES, REWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS 2023
Front row: HM the King, HM the Queen.
Second row from left: Klara Kristalova, Vice President, Helena Tallius Myhrman, President, Ulla West, Leontine Arvidsson, Sofia Heinonen, Päivi Ernkvist, Elisabeth Alsheimer Evenstedt, Permanent Secretary.
Third row: Elvire Soyez, Julia Bondesson, Sofia Runarsdotter, Ernst Nordin.
Top row: Petra Jensen, Roger Andersson, Jens Fröberg, Jonas Nobel.
The Axel Theofron Sandberg Watercolour Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Axel Theofron Sandberg's Watercolor Prize in 2023 to
ELVIRE SOYEZ
for the establishment of a poetic pocket of resistance in a time of rawness and filth.
We are invited to both the twilight of mind-expanding melancholy –
where libertarian seriousness still watches over the abyss –
as to the moments when our plight is illuminated by the flash of euphoria.Elvire Soyez enters into a contract with whoever wants to see.
The seal of the agreement is embossed in the shape of a heart.
The person who has just written their name carefully folds the document and puts it away
that in the left inner pocket...
The Axel Theofron Sandberg Watercolour Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Axel Theofron Sandberg's Watercolor Prize in 2023 to
ULLA WEST
for an artistry where a door opens for whoever wants to enter
a winding palace filled with signs of life.In room after room we get to take part in wondrous statements and cryptic artefacts,
the miraculous in intimate dialogue with the remains of everyday life.All characterized by a desire for articulation of the meaning-bearing.
Ulla West gives her view on the matter, a feeling in our common being.
The Axel Theofron Sandberg Watercolour Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Axel Theofron Sandberg's Watercolor Prize in 2023 to
ARNE FREDRIKSSON
on the ground
Arne Fredriksson's painting in watercolor and oil paint evokes light.
He builds up his compositions by placing richly modulated blocks of color
against each other, often in dull tones that contrast a glowing light.It's very beautiful! Like an adagio by Bruckner.
Inez Leander's Reward
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Inez Leanders Award in 2023 to
LEONTINE ARVIDSSON
on the ground
Leontine Arvidsson's work is an I-equation that embodies loss of control, pain and sadness.
In unyielding thoughts and materials, social constructions that are based on one's own physical and psychological experiences are punctured, in an artistry where painting, sculpture, text and film are in constant dialogue with each other. Everything is possible when the fable
may depict a divorce; shaped by magpies.Everyday reflections on one's own existence and a pencil's cross-outs of a diary text become a three-dimensional drawing manifested in a sculpture where the material's raw inflexibility against all odds is shaped to portray our fleeting, uncertain existence.
Göran Lagervall's prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Göran Lagervall's prize in 2023 to
PÄIVI ERNKVIST
on the ground
Proximity, tactility, materiality, craftsmanship, interactivity and a stimulating, non-authoritarian implementation are words that describe Päivi Ernkvist's practice and project management.
She works without prejudice and transcends borders with her artistic commitments and shows that project management is an artistic practice in itself.
The Augusta, Oscar and Harry Höckert Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Augusta, Oscar and Harry Höckerts Prize in 2023 to
JONAS NOBEL
on the ground
With aesthetic irony, sharp humor and philosophical melancholy
In his multi-faceted artistry, Jonas Nobel sharpens our attention and opens up new, inner and outer collisions of consciousness.
The Augusta, Oscar and Harry Höckert Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Augusta, Oscar and Harry Höckerts Prize in 2023 to
ROGER ANDERSON
on the ground
Roger Andersson's artistry radiates deep concentration and longing for beauty.
With his refined and detailed craftsmanship, Roger Andersson recreates the abandoned places of his childhood world in an unexpected and paradoxical poetry.
The Paul Hedqvist Award
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Paul Hedqvist Award in 2023 to
JULIA BONDESSON
on the ground
With presence and tactility, Julia has Bondesson in wood
carved and chiseled their essences.
Sculptures strong in their figurative abstraction,
with both physical and metaphysical presence.
Sculptures that she sometimes interactively interacts with.
A kind of wayward body puppet performance,
where the figurations left at rest are themselves enough.
Carl Christensen and Maria Ekman Foundation's prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Carl Christensen's and Maria Ekman's Foundation prize in 2023 to
GÖSTA WESSEL
on the ground
In his work, Gösta Wessel has delved deeply into studies
characterized by color, light, geometric shapes and patterns.
His work in both painting and sculpture and his impressively large site-specific installations for architectural and urban environments
imbued with a curious, inquisitive, investigative.
Asmund and Lizzie Arles Sculptor Prize
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Asmund and Lizzie Arles sculptor prize in 2023 to
ULLA VIOTTI
on the ground
She creates magical places through clay and brick.
For example, the monumental landscape sculpture "Cimbris" in brick outside Simrishamn. The work starts from a so-called ring wall and is located on the site where one of Skåne's many brickworks used to exist.
The craftsmanship and scale of that place gives a sense of a strange place of worship, another time and order as if in a fantasy or dream.
The Hans and Desy Viksten Grant
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Hans and Desy Vikstens Scholarship in 2023 to
PETRA JENSEN
on the ground
Since kinship in their artistic work can be discerned.
In Jensen's work, a new kind of world emerges,
or perhaps a different way of seeing our own, where we find blackness, warmth and humor, with questions that touch the existence of man and the earth.
Fiction is intertwined with reality, science is mixed with it
hidden, in works produced with great sensitivity and artisanal precision.
Vera and Göran Agnekil's scholarship
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Vera and Göran Agnekil's scholarship in 2023 to
JENS FRÖBERG
for his at once objective and subjective painting.
Through sensitive color shifts and responsive brushwork, the seemingly simple compositions are given a spaciousness that is accentuated by the temperature of a color, or the color of a shadow.
The painstaking journey of the paintings from beginning to end is a search for the exact moment to occupy the promised place in the viewer's mental space.
Vera and Göran Agnekil's scholarship
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Vera and Göran Agnekil's scholarship in 2023 to
SOFIA RUNAR'S DAUGHTER
In her installation "Girls unboxed", she has returned to her hometown of Robertsfors to experience and stage what was important during her youth: handball.In the photographs, she transforms the pain, the hard, into grace and beauty like baroque paintings. In the work, she takes us to the state between young and adult, hard and beautiful.
Martha Larsson's Rome scholarship
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Martha Larsson's Rome scholarship in 2023 to
SOFIA HEINONEN
Painting meets our field of vision like a soft mist.
The enigmatic play of colors touches the feeling of light that both moves in front of us and is reflected on our body.The impact of the hand on the topography of the surfaces testifies to the choreographic implications of the creative process and at the same time breaks up the dimensional limitations of the image.
From the place in front of the canvas, we can contemplate nature and our place on earth, with a kind of sensation of how time envelops us through life.
Erik Lindberg's fund for the promotion of Swedish medal art
Top row: Lars O Lagerqvist, former head of the Royal Mint Cabinet. Harry Martinsson, author. Georges Simenon, detective story writer
Bottom row: Greta Garbo, actress. Joseph Conrad, author. No newspapers, actors.
Inga Tidblad was ordered by Dramaten and is minted in silver. Harry Martinsson is stamped in bronze. The others are cast in bronze. Photo: Martin Skoog
The Art Academy's Prize Committee has decided to give
Erik Lindberg's fund for the promotion of Swedish medal art
to the coin and medal artist – also the sculptor
ERNST NORDIN
on the ground
Ernst Nordin is a master of medal art.
He superbly brings relief and light to work together to create magnificent expressions of empathy and personality within the given limitations of the medal format.With sensitivity and resourcefulness, he succeeds in discreetly introducing details that give life and depth.
In the medals that leave Ernst Nordin's hands, living portraits emerge from the surface of the metal, blown to life by knowledge and solid craftsmanship.
The portraits are impressively numerous - some of them, Inga Tidblad, Greta Garbo, Harry Martinson and Lise Meitner - and the Academy's first Honorary Member King Carl XVI Gustaf in an edition of over 23 million copies - the one crown that we all physically touched.