Roland Persson: The Composition

The combination of coloured silicone paste and casting is at once sculptural and painterly, rendering the details of the work stunningly illusory. The deep knowledge and complete mastery of the technique is the result of decades of collaboration with the chosen material.

Persson has explored the intersection between humans and nature, the conscious and the subconscious, as well as the private and the public. In recent years, his imagery has focused on plants and animals, with nature taking on an allegoric role as a reflective surface of the unconscious. The surrealist and enigmatic nature of Persson’s work is partly explained by his interest in dreams and psychoanalysis. His symbolically charged works often contain some deliberate imperfection, damage and undefined melancholy that makes the viewer feel compassion for them. The sculptures are often accompanied by various supports, bandages, prostheses and blankets, which can be seen as reference to our clumsy attempts at repairing traumas or signs of the passage of time.

Brutally beautiful and moving, The Composition is a collection of new works from this year that speak to the fragility and vulnerability of life amidst the insecurity that surrounds us. The world they create balances between death, transience, nurture and care, opening up, like a vanitas, to different interpretations of the fundamental questions of our existence. While the music has ended and silence remains, someone has placed a lace cloth on the table and given a sprig of walnut some water.

The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.

Roland Persson (b. 1963) lives and works in Stockholm. He graduated from the Umeå School of Art in 1993 and continued his studies at the Royal Stockholm School of Art, graduating as a sculptor in 1999. Persson’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Nordic countries, Europe, Russia and Asia, and in Sweden he is also known for his many public works. In Finland, Persson’s works can be found in several public collections, including Amos Rex, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, WAM Turku City Art Museum and Turku Art Museum. He is also currently a candidate for the Ars Fennica 2025 Prize.