ELECTED MEMBERS UNDER 2024
VALERIA MONTTI COLQUE
Artist
Elected at the Assembly on April 29 2024
In Valeria Montti Colque's artwork, transformation, spirituality and diaspora are frequently recurring themes. She works with stories and builds visual worlds with inspiration from everyday life, myths, religions, society, heritage and popular culture. The works often contain symbols and metaphors. Everyday found objects, costumes, and cultural trash become collage-based sculptural installations and performances. Valeria Montti Colques likes to work collectively with artists, musicians, performance artists, family and friends.
Valeria Montti Colque, born in 1978, has a degree from the Royal The Academy of Arts. Her installation, Apu Mamáhöjden Ojitos de Sal was acquired by Moderna Museet in Stockholm as part of their collection in 2022. Valeria has participated in a number of exhibitions and performances in Sweden and internationally. She has had a solo exhibition at the Museo de Solidaridad Salvador Allende in Santiago de Chile during 2020 and represents Chile, as the first exiled Chilean, in 2024 year's Venice Biennale.
RUNO LAGOMARSINO
Artist
Elected at the Assembly on April 29 2024
Runo Lagomarsino's artistic work is poetic, existential, political and precise. He uses the painting ability of objects, images, places and even more immaterial elusive elements, such as sun, light and water, to capture the viewer. The works are both physical and conceptual, felt in both body and soul, and touch on questions of everything from national identity to international history and how these affect our present. Lagomarsino often uses the autobiographical interlinked with events and issues that affect us all.
With drawings, sculptures, recycled objects, collages, actions and installations, he shows connections between the colonial past and its repercussions in our present and future.
Runo Lagomarsino, born in 1977, has a master's degree from Malmö School of Art at Lund University and has also studied at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Runo Lagomarsino's art has been shown in many contexts in Sweden and internationally, including the Malmö Art Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. He has participated in several biennales such as the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Biennale. In 2019, Runo Lagomarsino received the Moderna Museet's Friends Sculpture Prize.
SIROUS NAMAZI
Artist
Elected at the Assembly on April 29 2024
Sirous Namazi portrays universal themes based on personal experiences with seriousness, humor and tenderness. In various materials such as found ceramics, embroidery, building materials, video or painting, he highlights the deceitfulness and pain of memory.
Sirous Namazi, born in 1970, is educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Malmö. He has participated in several exhibitions both in Sweden and internationally. He has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Magasin III in Stockholm and Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. Together with Jacob Dahlgren, Sirous Namazi represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale in the Nordic pavilion in 2007. He has received several different awards such as the Prince Eugen medal - for outstanding artistic work, the City of Stockholm's honorary prize and the Barbro and Holger Bäckström scholarship.
MATTIA'S PALM
Architect
Elected at the Assembly on April 29 2024
Mattias Palme has an ambition and belief that through architecture we can strengthen the local community. In his work as an architect, he is therefore often focused on public properties and public buildings with important social functions such as schools, healthcare and sports. The architecture is low-key but with clear empathy where the building's content plays the main role. Many times the houses are in smaller towns and an ambition has then been to get people to be able to stay where they live. The society-building ambition has also been shown in the texts he has written.
Mattias Palme, born in 1968, has a degree from the school of architecture at KTH in Stockholm. Together with a couple of employees, since 2005 he has been leading the office LLP arkitektkontor with about ten employees. The projects include:
Kronängsskolan in Vaxholm; new construction of upper secondary and cultural school in 2017.
Adolfbergsskolan Knivsta; nominated for the Kasper Sahlin Prize 2020.
Preschool Träffen Nyköping, named School and Preschool Building of the Year 2022.
MARTIN RÖRBY
Honorary member
Elected at the Assembly on April 29 2024
Martin Rörby is a prominent architectural researcher with very good knowledge of Swedish architecture and urban construction, especially late 1800th century, 1900th century and contemporary. He actively participates in the public conversation about the city as a living environment and also regularly presents architecture in SVT.
Martin Rörby, born 1964, is a Ph.D., architectural historian, writer and former secretary of the Council for the Protection of Stockholm's Beauty. He has a background at the Architecture Museum (now ArkDes) and Stockholm University. He has published several books on 1900th century architecture and contributed to a number of anthologies.
In the years 2017–2021, Martin Rörby was a member of, and from 2020 chairman of, Sveriges Arkitekters, SA's, Academy for the Cultural Environment. In the fall of 2018, he was awarded the Olle Engkvist medal for his public education efforts in the field of architecture and urban planning. In 2020, he also received Stockholms Byggnadsförening's anniversary foundation's honorary award.
ELECTED MEMBERS DURING 2023
LEIF HOLMSTRAND
Artist
Elected at the Meeting 27 November 2023
Leif Holmstrand is extremely productive and has created an unmistakable artistry with international bearing, it is peculiar and unique. He works with performance, sculpture, drawing, text and music. In his objects, the material takes center stage – the yarn, the textile, the black plastic bags, the prams, the ropes, the rubbish.
Recurring themes are – the ritual, the violence, the vulnerability of the body and the mind, the cross-border gender affiliation, garbage as the ultimate consequence of culture and life – but also a deeply empathetic understanding of the human condition, warmth and compassion.
Leif Holmstrand, born 1972, educated at the Academy of Arts in Malmö and Norrköping Art School. His works are represented at Moderna Museet, Zarya Center for Contemporary Art in Vladivostok, Malmö Art Museum and the Statens Konstråd. Leif Holmstrand has published around forty poetry collections and novels etc. and also released music albums. He was recently awarded the Barbro & Holger Bäckström scholarship and the Ekelöf Prize.
LOUISE MASRELIEZ
Architect
Elected at the Meeting 27 November 2023
Materiality, spatial clarity and attention to detail are clear characteristics of Louise Masreliez's architecture. She has a specialty in building maintenance and renovations and operates in a white field with everything from schools, museums, public buildings and homes to exhibitions and interiors. Röhsska museum, Bonniers Konsthall, Moderna Museet and World Culture Museum are projects where Louise Masreliez has worked with public parts and exhibitions.
In 2002, Louise Masreliez co-founded Marge Arkitekter. Examples of projects where she has had a leading role in collaboration with her colleagues are the boat terminals at Strömkajen in Stockholm and Naturum Trollskogen in northern Öland.
Louise Masreliez, born 1968. Architect SAR/MSA. partner and founder of Marge Arkitekter. Has a degree from the School of Architecture at KTH and has also studied Restoration Art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. University of the Arts and studied in Copenhagen and the USA. She has previously been a member of the Kasper Salin prize's jury as well as chairman of Stockholm's Architects' Association and Sweden's Architects. In 2016, Louise Masreliez received the Prince Eugen medal together with the colleagues at Marge Arkitekter.
PATRICK AMSELLEM
Honorary member
Elected at the Meeting on April 24, 2023
Patrick Amsellem was director of the Skissernas Museum in Lund for nine years (2012–2020) and transformed the museum from a dormant archive into an attractive visitor destination; this without the unique museum losing any of its qualities. On the contrary, the research opportunities were balanced with public events and the already internationally recognized collection was made available to an ever-growing audience. With extensive experience of education and work abroad, he not only brought an outlook towards the world but also an insight into the multicultural and global approach that now forms the consciousness base of every museum.
Patrick Amsellem b 1969, has a doctorate in art science and architectural history at New York University. He has previously been curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and worked at Malmö Konsthall and Rooseum. Since 2020, Patrick Amsellem has been director of the Norwegian Arts Council.
BELLA RUNE
Artist
Elected at the Meeting on April 24, 2023
Bella Rune experiments with different materials and techniques in her creation of sculptures, often with performative elements or origins. Her practice seeks connections between craft, contemporary and the place for which the work is created and the living that populates it. The textile runs like a red thread in her work, both as a metaphor, material, technology and as a lens to examine the history and future of man. Rune is interested in how new digital media (Augmented Reality) can be used to connect a physical reality with a virtual world. An example is the app Konsekvensanalys, which is permanently installed at the Stockholm School of Economics and has been included in several exhibitions at museums.
Bella Rune b. 1971, educated at Chelsea College of Art. She worked as a professor of textiles at Konstfack between 2012 and 2022, where she successfully opened the window between the different departments and was a co-creator of the new master's course CRAFT. Her work is represented at, among others, the Moderna Museet, the Gothenburg Museum of Art and the Malmö Museum of Art.
www.bellarune.com
@bellarune
JOHAN ARRHOV
Architect
Elected at the Meeting on April 25, 2023
Johan Arrhov has been running the architectural office Arrhov Frick since 2010, which has designed a number of quirky and interesting buildings that have achieved great international attention. In 2018, the office was named "Architect of the Year" by Residence magazine. Arrhov Frick is the first Nordic architectural firm to have two monographs published about its work; 2G International Architectural Magazine (2018) and of the prestigious proposal El Croquis (2022). The office has been nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019 and 2022.
Johan Arrhov b. 1979, received his master's degree in architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology in 2007. He is involved in the academic discourse and regularly lectures around the world on his work and theories. Since 2021, he has been appointed visiting professor at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland, and runs a research-based studio that addresses questions about necessary changes in behavior, simplified constructions to achieve relevant, sustainable and beautiful architecture.
ELECTED MEMBERS DURING 2022
DAVID NEUMAN
Honorary member
Elected at the Meeting 28 November 2022
In 1987, David Neuman was a co-founder of Magazine 3 Stockholm Art Gallery, now called Magazine III Museum for Contemporary Art. Neuman was head of the institution from 1987 to 2017 and is now its board chairman. In a time before low-cost flights and digital media shrunk all distances both physically and mentally, the art gallery made a large number of international artists available in Stockholm with exhibitions on an institutional level in a class of their own.
David Neuman has participated in starting the international Master's course in Curating Art at Stockholm University and the art gallery accelerator out at Frescati.
An additional deep commitment for David Neuman is as working chairman of the board of Stiftelsen Judiska museet in Stockholm, where his work led to a new establishment of the museum in a historic setting in the Old Town.
David Neuman, born 1955. Affiliated professor and honorary doctorate at the Department of Art, Stockholm University. Chairman of the board of Stiftelsen Judiska museet in Stockholm and Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art.
NIELS DE BRUIN
Architect
Elected at the Meeting on April 25, 2022
Niels de Bruin has over 20 years of experience as a landscape architect in a wide range of different roles and engagements. He mainly works with the public space; squares, parks, walks – a subject area that is highly topical in today's urban development. He is interested in how people use streets, places and squares and how architects can help make the living environment attractive and useful. De Bruin is active part-time in teaching at the School of Architecture in Lund. He has experience as competition and development manager at White in Malmö and within Movium's management group for research grants.
Niels de Bruin, born 1976. Works since 2022 at Kragh Berglund. Member of Sweden's Architects. Educated at Wageningen Univ. Holland, the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and has a Master of Science from SLU Alnarp. Examples of projects with complicated conditions in terms of rail traffic are St Johannesplan/konsthalltorget in Malmö and Clemenstorget in Lund.
KRISTINA MATOUSCH
Artist
Elected at the Meeting on April 25, 2022
Seen over time, Matousch has been both consistent and uncompromising in his work. In all her projects, she has taken both risks and managed to push through complex and tightly held performative works, which with their structures again and again put the viewer in a completely peculiar and specific position. It is important to mention how decisively her method and careful preparation time and again prepared the space for her work to have full effect together with audience, context and space.
Kristina Matousch b.1974. Educated at the Royal Academy of Arts 1995–2000. Represented in i.a. The collections of Moderna Museet and Malmö Art Museum.
www.matousch.com