Majlis Agbeck and Johan Röing

Majlis Agbeck and Johan Röing
Moderna Museet Malmö, 25 May–6 October, 2019
Curator: Iris Müller-Westermann

Majlis Agbeck and Johan Röing fill Moderna Museet Malmö with sheer threads and transforming wood. In two solo exhibitions the Malmö-based artists present both older and completely new work.

At first glance, we encounter two entirely different artists this summer in their respective galleries at Moderna Museet Malmö. While Majlis Agbeck works with embroidery and thin, sheer threads, Johan Röing uses an angle grinder and a chainsaw to make his sculptures. They do, however, have skilled craftsmanship, idiosyncrasy and great respect for the materials in their hands in common. This ties the work of the two artists and their exhibitions together.

Majlis Agbeck (b. 1948) presents around ten works in the Right Gallery on the Museum’s upper level. In her paintings and embroideries, Agbeck conjures up a singular universe, where strange animals are recurring motifs. Her diaphanous image worlds, seemingly unbound by gravity, are profoundly rare and unlike anything else.

“Agbeck is an observer who relates perceptions from a zone that lies beyond words, says Iris Müller-Westermann. “The artist masterfully peels away all that is superfluous. There is a silence and wonder in these images that exudes loneliness, yet seems to invite participation. The threads linking to the world outside are exceedingly thin and fragile. With fine threads Majlis Agbeck embroiders stories about careful examinations of relationships, and about approaching an unfamiliar world beyond one’s own limitations, where nothing can be taken at face value.”

The adjacent New Gallery presents some twenty works by Johan Röing (b. 1958) that span over four decades, including some completely new works. Johan Röing uses a variety of materials, but the exhibition focuses on his wooden sculptures.

At first glance, Johan Röing’s simple, raw wooden sculptures depicting people or animals resemble some of the works produced by the so-called New Wild artists in Germany in the 1980s. Röing’s approach, however, is much more sensitive. He dedicates himself to the material with immense skill and reverence, and even greater faith in his intuition. He sculpts it using a chainsaw and an angle grinder but never loses dialogue with it.

“Johan Röing’s work is in constant transformation, and he likes to return to older artworks, sometimes reworking them and putting them to the test anew. Over the years, he has increasingly moved away from a figurative approach towards greater and greater abstraction, yet Röing’s sculptures still retained something archaic and secretive,” says Iris Müller-Westermann.

Majlis Agbeck was born in Halmstad and began her career as a painter. After art studies in Malmö in 1969–70, she studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm from 1970 to 1975. Since 2004, thread and embroidery have been her primary expressive medium. Agbeck currently lives and works in Malmö and Sjörup/Ystad.

Johan Röing was born in Malmö, but he grew up in Germany. He studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1979 and 1986 under teachers such as Tony Cragg. He returned to Sweden in 1996 and now lives and works in Malmö and in the rural village of Fuglie south of the city.