Johan Wahlstrom from Stockholm, Sweden is an artist who is making a conscious effort to describe the social political landscape of our contemporary world.
He is mostly known for his ironic series Social Life/Disconnecting that gives a perfect sense both from a conceptual as a formal point of view of this estrangement. He is a magnificent observer of our social life’s.
He is a fifth-generation artist on his mother’s side. His first creative direction was rock and roll, where he had a successful and long career as a keyboardist and singer, touring with Ian Hunter, Graham Parker, Mick Ronson and many Scandinavian artists. After 18 years, the rock and roll life caught up with him. Wahlstrom moved to a small village in France where he did nothing but paint for seven years, part of that time under the tutelage of Swedish artist, Lennart Nystrom. Wahlstrom’s narrative paintings of heads and torsos are inspired by cryptic, often ironic social critiques that he collects on scraps of paper in his studio. Wahlstrom lives and works in Jersey City, NJ, USA.
His works have been exhibited since 1998 across Europe and the USA in solo shows and group shows with artists like Andy Warhol, AI Weiwei, Gerhard Richter, Santiago Sierra, Erwin Olaf, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jake & Dinos Chapman, and David Salle.
Selected Publications:
Paper Magazine, USA
Brooklyn Rail, USA
Art Critical, USA
Artnet, USA
Huffington Post, USA
WhiteHot Magazine, USA
Quite Lunch Magazine, USA
Art Pulse Magazine, USA
Forbes Magazine, USA
Konstvarlden, Sweden
Opulens Magazine, Sweden
TV4 National Television, Sweden
Wall Street International Magazine, UK
Art Fuse, USA
Art Voices, USA
Miami Times, USA
Bedford Bowery, USA
Newsweek, USA
Selected Collections
Peter Rothschild Family Collection, New York, USA
David Brolliet Collection, Geneva, Switzerland
The Modern Museum Of Art, Dubrovnik, Croatia
National Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovinia
Eileen S Kaminsky Family Foundation, USA
Ethan Cohen Family Collection, New York, USA
Swedish Finn Historical Society, Seattle, WA USA
400 Clairmont Urban Renewal (Real Estate), Jersey City, NJ, USA
Doron Klinghofer, AMBA, London, UK
A Kasteyeu State Museum, Kazakhstan
Mana Contemporary Collection, USA
Fondazione Opera Campanda dei Caduti, Italy
Spazio-Tempo Collection, Italy
Macura Museum, Serbia
Bell of Peace Foundation, Italy
Mattias Jonsson Family Collection, Marbella, Spain
Marie Taittinger Collection, Belgium/France
Thomas Bodstrom Family Collection, Stockholm, Sweden
25 Senate Place (Real Estate), Jersey City, NJ, USA
Liza Marklund Family Collection, Stockholm, Sweden
Mona Sahlin Collection, Stockholm, Sweden
Ivar Jacobsson Family Collection, Verbier, Switzerland
Selected Recent Exhibitions including Art Fairs:
Art Miami, Art Fair, Ethan Cohen Gallery December 2019
No Rules, Solo Exhibition Gallery Ramfjord
Oslo, Norway September-October 2019
Collisions, Solo Exhibition Georges Berges Gallery New York, NY, USA
June 2019
From 1960s Celebrities Until Todays Social Media, From Warhol To Wahlstrom 2 man show, Andy Warhol, Johan Wahlstrom
Ethan Cohen ́s The KuBe
Beacon, NY, USA
May-August, 2019
Orphans Of Paintings II
Ethan Cohen ́s The KuBE
Beacon, NY, USA
Group Exhibition curated by Raul Zamodio and Ethan Cohen
Among the artists in the show, Ai Weiwei, Jeannie Motherwell and Fabian Marcaccio
Hidden Figures, Solo Exhibition
Es Arte Gallery, San Pedro De Alcantara/Marbella, Spain April 2019
JustMad, Art Fair, Madrid, Spain, ES Arte Gallery February 2019
Art Miami, Art Fair, Ethan Cohen Gallery December 2018
Contemporary Istanbul, Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey, Ethan Cohen Gallery September 2018
Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
“From 1960s Celebrities Until Todays Social Media, From Warhol To Wahlstrom” Curate by Paco Barragan, 2 man show.
September 2018
Marbella Art Fair, Marbella, Spain, ES Arte Gallery July 2018
Foundation Fernet-Branca Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis/Alsace, France “Collection David H. Broillet Geneve” “40 ans de collection et un film documentaire de 60min”
Group Show, Among the artists included are Miguel Barcelo, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Salle.
May - September 2018
Es Arte Gallery, San Pedro De Alcantara/Marbella, Spain, “Hidden Figures” Solo Exhibition, May-June 2018
Vertical Gallery, Chicago, Scandinavian Artists curated by Galleri Ramfjord, Group Exhibition, May 2018
Georges Bergés Gallery, “Life Is Good”, Solo Exhibition, New York, NY, USA March-April 2018
Cross Contemporary Art Gallery, “Mark Me” Group Exhibition, Curated by Ford Crull, Saugerties, NY, USA, February 2018
Robert Kananaj Gallery, “Realistic Abstraction”, Group Exhibition, Toronto, Canada, February 2018
Georges Bergés Gallery, Solo Exhibition, “Distorted Happiness” New York, NY, USA, June-July 2017
Petra Lossen Gallery, Group Exhibition, “Political Poetical” curated by Paco Barragan, Zurich, Switzerland. November-December 2017
Artists in the exhibition: Erwin Olaf, Santiago Sierra, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Johan Wahlstrom
BuBox, “Forever” curated by Gery Van Tendeloo and Jerome Jacobs, Kortrijk, Belgium, March-May 2016.
Artists in the exhibition: Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys, Jake & Dinos Champman, Gavin Turk.
Castrum Peregrini, “Read My Lips” curated by Paco Barragán, Amsterdam, Holland, Group Exhibition, April-June 2016.
Artists in the exhibition: Shepard Fairey, Nicola Verlato, Ronald Ophuis, Nedko Solakov and Kepa Garraza
Form/Space Atelier (artist run space), Seattle, USA, “House Of Lies” Solo Exhibition, April-July 2016
WhiteBox NYC, “Let The Bidding Begin” (”Pay Per Inch”) Performance by Johan Wahlstrom, May 31st, 2016
WhiteBox NYC, New York, USA, Act Of Sedition, Group Exhibition, Curated by Raul Zamudio and Juan Puntes, October-November 2016
Fridge Art Fair, Miami, USA December 2016
Centre Cultural Can Gruart, Girona, Spain, Group Exhibition, December 2014- January 2015
FONDAZIONE OPERA CAMPANA DEI CADUTI
“Human Rights”, Group Exhibition, Curated by Roberto Ronca, Rovereto, Trento, Italy, June-August 2015
Robert Kananaj Gallery, Toronto, Canada, Group Exhibition, RKG Fourth Anniversary, July 2015
Artist In Residency at Eileen S Kaminsky Family Foundation (ESKFF) - MANA Contemporary
Jersey City, NJ, USA. September-December 2015
