We are delighted to present the exhibition Palace of the forest by Jeff Olsson in the inner room of the gallery. In his artistry Jeff Olsson has worked exclusively with drawing since the start. His works are created with charcoal, graphite and dry pastel on paper and have with few exceptions been in black and white.

My work process is a metabolic maelstrom where the boundary separating question from answer is unclear, or even non-existent. The content of the images is a mixture of my exploration of my own ideas about the history and origins of art, and to some extent also a kind of mythologizing of my own experiences and fantasies. When I draw, I try to be present, but I don't think, I just draw.

(Jeff Olsson)

Something ancient and prehistorical about drawing lives on in Olsson’s imagery, even though they are of course contemporary. A poetic and substantive connection to a primitive creation with the coal from a burned-out campfire. The drawings often reminiscent of relics or messages from a time that no longer exists, or that has not yet arrived. They carry an inherent melancholy and despair and seem to be drawn out of necessity rather than pleasure. But in the austerity there is also a childish dark humor and an almost manic desire to tell stories. The pen, stick or piece of charcoal continues an endless journey on the paper.

In Jeff Olsson’s charcoal and graphite drawings there is an ambivalence and duality where the familiar is suddenly strange. With magnificent landscapes as a backdrop he direct its inhabitants, animals and humans, in dreamy scenes under a full moon. We enter a fateful darkness where existential issues meet willful humor and an alluring bias.

Jeff Olsson was born 1981 in Kristinehamn, Sweden. He lives and works in Gothenburg and studied at Valand Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden (2003–2008). Selected solo exhibitions: Dalsland Konstmuseum, Sweden (2025), Verkligheten, Sweden (2024), Göteborgs konstförening, Gothenburg, Sweden (2024), Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden (2024, 2018, 2015, 2011, 2010), Kristinehamns konstmuseum, Sweden (2021), Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden (2018), Hellvi Kännungs, Gotland, Sweden (2017), Passagen, Linköpings konsthall, Sweden, together with Joakim Ojanen, (2016), Market Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden (2014), Krets, Malmö, Sweden (2014), Jack Hanley, New York, US (2013) och Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden (2009). Selected group exhibitions: British Museum, London, UK (2025), Konsthallen Lokstallet, Sweden (2024), London Art Fair, Mothflower, UK (2022), Chart Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021, 2014), Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Austria (2019), Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden (2019, 2015), Strandverket, Marstrand, Sweden (2015), Konsthallen–Bohusläns museum, Uddevalla, Sweden (2014), Frieze Art Fair, Jack Hanley Gallery, UK (2013), The Armory Show, New York, US (2012, 2011), Garemijn Hall, Bruges, Belgium (2012), Needles and Pens, San Francisco, US (2010), Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg (2008), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2008) och Art Copenhagen, Denmark (2007). His works are represented in collections of e.g. The British Museum, UK, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Västerås Konstmuseum, Region Värmland, Region Gävleborg, Linköping Municipality, Public Art Agency, Sweden and private collection in Sweden and internationally.