Markus Åkesson

In 2022, along with Kosta Boda, Åkesson created a glass sculpture "Medusa" that shows the supple side of the glass. This sculpture was exhibited in the exhibition "Μέδουσα | Scyphozoa" at Da-End Gallery in Paris.

Jun Takahashi reiterated his collaboration with Åkesson for the Fall/Winter 2021 collection, in which 4 of Markus Åkesson's paintings were selected (Chesterfield dreams (Edvin), 2011, Childs Play, 2011, Insomnia (Moths), 2017, The Woods (Insomnia), 2013) and printed on outerwear as well as knitwear and shirts for both the men's and women's entire collections.

Before becoming a painter, Åkesson was trained as a welder when he was young. Then he started his job as a glass engraver when he was around 20s. He loved working with the creative manner in the glass industry, but after a while he found the urge to express himself through another method which is oil painting. Now Åkesson has his own atelier in an old Glass Factory called Pukeberg. In 2021 Åkesson returned to the glass industry, this time as an art glass design partner for Kosta Boda.It was through his wife and fellow artist, Ellen Ehk Åkesson that Åkesson came into contact with Kosta Boda. Since spring 2021, the couple has shared a studio in Kosta, in addition to their studios in the old Pukeberg Glassworks in Nybro. They share numerous intersecting points, not just privately but also artistically, having grown up near one another in the forests of Småland. The mystery of the forest is a strongly shared theme in their art. Ever since his time as a glass engraver, Markus Åkesson has experienced what he calls a powerful pull to glass. He has previously experimented with glass sculptures.

Some of his earliest glass pieces were exhibited at the Duo-exhibition 'Skogens Hjärta' at VIDA Museum & Konstall in the spring of 2021. His art glass was also exhibited alongside his paintings at Market Art Fair in Stockholm in the spring of 2022. We find his use of patterns in his sculptures as well, which he spends the most time engraving.

Patterns have always been present in Markus Åkesson's pictorial universe. Starting rather shyly with patterns on rugs and tapestries, he begins to integrate textiles more prominently into his paintings in his solo show "Let me sleep through the night" (2018). Plunged into mysterious situations with a psychological dimension carried by the subjects and the settings, Markus' works are filled with various ornaments, drapes and clothes. He then gradually began to focus entirely on fabric and its patterns, which eventually became the primary subject of his paintings, especially with his series "Now you see me" shown in his solo show Strange Days (2020). We find the silhouettes usually present in Markus' paintings, but this time they are completely hidden, covered with sheets of various patterns and textures.

In 2018, Kalmar Konstmuseum curated a retrospective exhibition of Åkesson’s work titled Sleeping Beauty, due, in part, to the school's reaction to the painting.

In 2013 the French gallery Da-End contacts the Swedish artist to start a collaboration that lasts until today. A first painting, The Weight (150 x 250 cm), illustrating an elephant laying on a carpet, is exhibited the same year at the Grand Palais on the occasion of the international contemporary art fair Art Paris Art Fair. This will be followed by solo and group exhibitions in galleries and institutional venues.

Markus Åkesson's works are greatly influenced by myths and fairytales. During his early years of painting, his work revolved around themes such as the passage from childhood to adolescence, with a tinge of mystery and a rather dark atmosphere. As Markus works a lot with series of paintings, his series The Woods, Black Pond and Psychopomp Club, exhibited in his solo show 'The Woods' in 2013 at the Da-End gallery, transcribes his pictorial universe of the time, representing children in an enigmatic space, people half asleep, skulls of animals, psychopomps, settings full of symbols and nods to nature. All his paintings seem to have as a common thread the theme of the in-between, a recurring topic in all of his series.

In 2013, during his solo show "The Woods" at the French gallery Da-End, designer Jun Takahashi discovered the work of Markus Åkesson. Some time later, he became fascinated with his work and would state his desire to collaborate with the painter. The collaboration is materialized by the printing of 3 paintings on shawls for the Fall/Winter 2014 ready-to-wear collection, which was shown in 2014 at the Palais de Tokyo during Paris Fashion Week.

Åkesson's realistic style of oil painting was not in vogue during his early years as an artist and one of the modern world's most traditional forms of visual art was therefore considered an untraditional choice for a young Scandinavian artist in the 1990's. However, after establishing himself locally, Markus Åkesson had several solo exhibitions and public works projects early on in his career that proved to be important stepping stones towards his current representation and international acknowledgment.

Markus Åkesson (born 10 July 1975) is a Swedish artist working with painting and glass sculpture. He lives and works in Nybro, Sweden with his wife, the ceramist Ellen Ehk. His painting studio is in the former Glass Factory at Pukeberg in Nybro and he collaborates with the glass studio Kosta Boda. He is one of the most prominent international painters in the neo-figurative style.