BIOGRAPHY

The curiously alluring sculptural forms of Mårten Medbo eschew easy classification. Both strange and menacing but at the same time playful and humoristic, Medbo’s fantastical sculptures continuously shift between both abstraction and representation, form and function. Medbo is an artist in dialogue with the centuries old ceramic medium but not restricted by it. Traditional, classical glazes are applied and poured over otherworldly forms and through continued experimentation in developing new motifs and contexts, Medbo creates a truly unique and surprising sculptural environment.

Each sculpture consists of a number of wheel-thrown clay parts which, when attached and manipulated by the artists hand, create surreal sculptural forms. In the Hose series long, snake like tangles of clay are twisted and turned in on each other creating a seemingly never-ending web where no start or finish can be detected. Medbo’s Crowds have bulbous  bubble-like curves evoking sprouting organic growths, while the anthropomorphic forms of Medbo’s Tripods and Quadpods appear alive, like creatures stalking the gallery, lumbering and seeping. Sitting somewhere between horror and comedy, Medbo’s almost menacing oversized mouths grimace and wince, the terror abated by their smooth curves and oversized proportions.

Unpredictability is the artists way forward. Medbo continues to develop and expand his imaginative world and to blur the line between art, design and craft. By combining both historical techniques with genre defying thinking and by confidently balancing humour and menace, beauty and ugliness Medbo reinforces the thought that in his world, anything is possible.

Mårten Medbo (b. 1964 Järfälla, Sweden) was educated at Konstfack, Stockholm, Sweden (1992) and received his PHD at the School of Design and Crafts, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016). Recent exhibitions include Thinking Through Clay, Katrineholms Konsthall, Katrineholm, Sweden (2017); Endnote, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016); Mårten Medbo, Christian Larsen, Stockholm, Sweden (2015); Soul of a Bowl, Vogooze Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2015); Fire!, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, USA (2014); Homo Capax, Swedish Institute and Galerie NeC, Paris, France (2013). Medbo’s works are represented in the National Museum (Stockholm) Röhsska Museum (Gothenburg) The Islandic Museum of Design and Applied Art (Reykjavik) Gotland Art Museum (Gotland) John Michael Kohler Art Centre (USA) as well as many private collections in Sweden, Europe and the United States.

ODDBALL, 2018

MÅRTEN MEDBO