Jockum Nordström
“Kusken”
Already as a child, Jockum Nordström devoted himself to collage—or rather, that was simply what he did. Constantly occupied with cutting, pasting, drawing with pencils, ink, and crayons, he was driven by curiosity and the interplay between mind and hand, a challenge that has steadily propelled his artistic practice forward: new exhibitions, new works, travels, and yet more exhibitions.
In the work “Kusken” (“The Coachman”), we find the parquet floor–like motif that appears in several of his collages from the early 2000s. In 2013, Bukowskis sold the work “De fyra väderstrecken” (“The Four Points of the Compass”), which features a similarly constructed motif. On that occasion, Jockum explained: “–It is one of my earliest collages. […] Some of the collage figures I made many years earlier—the girls that can be turned upside down like playing cards. I made a collage around the same time, even using the same technique. It is called ‘Kusken’ and later became the model for a carpet for Märta Måås-Fjetterström.”
Märta Måås-Fjetterström’s council selected Nordström’s “Kusken” as the textile artwork of the year in 2004 and created a carpet based on his sketch. Jockum has also collaborated with Handarbetets Vänner.
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The technique in this collage brings to mind a contemporary, highly advanced form of intarsia or even a ceiling painting. Facades and architectural elements are recurring motifs in Nordström’s work. In the lower part of the piece, we see models of buildings reminiscent of Södersjukhuset in Stockholm, originally a functionalist structure nicknamed “Söder’s white pearl.” Nordström has frequently worked with this type of sculptural form over the years. They have been shown in early exhibitions at Galleri Magnus Karlsson and in his exhibition at Liljevalchs Konsthall, “Inget papper, inga mynt” (“No Paper, No Coins”), in spring 2023. In “Kusken,” these austere buildings are combined with kurbits-inspired plants and trees. In the central rosette sits the coachman alone on the driver’s seat—no horse is in sight.
Jockum Nordström is represented, among other institutions, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, where he had a solo exhibition in 2005. His works are also held in major collections such as Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, LAM in Lille, SFMOMA in San Francisco, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He is represented by Galleri Magnus Karlsson (Stockholm), David Zwirner (New York/Los Angeles/London/Paris/Hong Kong), and TVLG (Antwerp/Rome).
Jockum Nordström at Contemporary Art & Design
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