Matthias van Arkel

Matthias van Arkel's style is unique and unmistakable. For more than 20 years, he has combined painting and sculpture in his own distinctive way. Ahead of Market Art Fair 2013, which took place at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Cecilia Hillström had the opportunity to let one of the gallery's artists take on the beautiful stairwell. The choice fell on Matthias van Arkel. He thought about the assignment and came to the conclusion that the Royal Academy of Fine Arts already had enough decorations on the walls, so instead he wanted to exhibit a three-dimensional painting in the middle of the room. In the work “Sarkofag” (Sarcophagus), his characteristic working material, platinum-cured vulcanized silicone rubber, has been wrapped around a specially built box of birch plywood—as if the brushstrokes of the painting had come to life, pushed out of the canvas, and embraced the wooden structure. The work was placed balancing on the top steps, as if it had just stopped for a moment on its way up to the next floor, leaning nonchalantly against the railing.

Matthias van Arkel challenges our perception of what defines a painting and invites us to see it from a new perspective. He strives to question and leave traditional painting behind, giving it a new space with its tactile, inviting surface. With his unique technique, he can paint in the form of cubes, organic shapes, or freely hanging objects. The artist trained at Konstfack and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and currently works in Stockholm and New York. His works can be found in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Swedish National Public Art Council, and the SOKO Art Collection in Finland, among others. Van Arkel has completed a number of public commissions in the US and Sweden, including The Williams residential building in New York, the monumental work Micro/Macro World at Jakobsberg bus terminal, Kumla swimming pool, and Stockholms Hamnar in Värtahamnen.