It is the bareness of drawing that I like. The act of drawing is what locates, suggests, discovers. At times it seems enough to draw, without the distractions of color and mass.

Philip Guston

Larsen Warner is pleased to present Drawing Attention, a selection of recent works on paper by Swedish artist Joakim Ojanen. Several of the works were exhibited earlier this year in the exhibition Shades of Existence at Teckningsmuseet, Laholm, Sweden featuring the work of Ojanen alongside Klara Kristalova and Ragnar Persson.

Drawing is a continual thread that weaves itself throughout the evolution of Ojanen’s work and forms the foundations of his artistic practice. Ojanen’s early drawings were small doodles within the pages of his sketchbooks, with these gradually developing into early screen prints and self-published zines. These sketches and zines offered a tantalising glimpse into the world that Ojanen would later go on to develop through his drawings, paintings and ceramic sculptures.  

With Cartoonish exuberance, Ojanen’s diverse and inventive drawing style can be seen as much related to the figurative distortions found in the work of artists such as Peter Saul, Philip Guston and R. Crumb as it can the aesthetics of contemporary cartoons such as Futurama, Garfield or The Simpsons. This playful and sophisticated artistic see-saw between fine art traditions and contemporary pop culture give Ojanen’s drawings their unique singular voice and encourage the viewer to delve deep into Ojanen’s imaginary world.  

 Each drawing is improvised with Ojanen having no set idea or agenda as to where the drawing will finally end up. One mark or form will lead to another, with the characters and creatures gradually appearing and morphing in ever-more surreal directions. Ears can function like arms, cheeks begin to stretch and flop, full human lips morph into duckbills and elongated noses sprout from their faces creating a narrative world where anything seems possible.

Ojanen uses his work to communicate the full spectrum of complicated human emotions. Through an ever evolving visual vocabulary of  oddball figures, creatures and expressive line, Ojanen’s art depicts essential human emotions, relations and insecurities, reflecting feelings that can often be hard to express but are given space to explore within the four corners of the papers surface.

“I think my work is some sort of universe, but I don’t have any rules or narrative for it. I think it’s quite close to the world we live in, but more honest. It’s a place where people can show their true feelings and don’t hide behind a facade.”

“His black-and-white drawings are even better. Boundaries between creatures large and small dissolve into a moving stew of reciprocal interactivity. The comic drama that unfold packs a punch”

David Pagel, LA Times

Joakim Ojanen (b. 1985, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Ojanen completed his MFA at Konstfack, Stockholm in 2014. In 2021 Ojanen will be the focus of his largest solo institutional exhibition to date at Västerås Konsthall, Sweden. Selected solo exhibitions include A Day in The Woods, AishoNanzuka, Hong Kong (2020); Snakepit, The Hole NYC, USA (2019); Where do we go from here?, Larsen Warner, Stockholm, Sweden (2018); Year of the Dog, Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, USA (2018); Anthropocene, Ruttkowski;68, Cologne, Germany (2017); Selected group exhibitions include Shades of Existence,Teckningsmuseet, Laholm, Sweden (2020); Mixed Pickles 7 – The Ghost Edition, Ruttkowski;68, Cologne, Germany (2020); Joakim Ojanen and Ryan Travis Christian, The Hole NYC, USA (2017); Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, South Korea (2017); Interrupted Boredom, Lefevbre & Fils, Paris, France (2017); KARNEVAL, Gustavsbergs Konsthall, Gustavsberg, Sweden (2016); Swedish Art: Now! Sven Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden; Ebelingmuseet, Torshälla Eskilstuna, Sweden (2016); Konsthallen Passagen, Linköping, Sweden (2016); Powerful Babies: The Impact of Keith Haring, Spritmuseum, Stockholm Sweden (2015-16); The Bries Space, Antwerp, Belgium (2015). In 2018, Ojanen was the focus of features in the Los Angeles Times, Paper Magazine and Juxtapoz Magazine and Orosdi Back published Joakim Ojanen as part of their ongoing Konstpocket series. Ojanen's work can be found in many public and private collections including Art Institute of Chicago, US; Colección Solo, Madrid, Spain; Västerås Art Museum, Sweden;  The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries; Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium and Åberg Museum, Bålsta, Sweden.