Mats Bergquist

When I was a child there was a polished vase in the dining room. 
In sunny weather, several spectra glitter around the walls.
I watched her slow movements with fascination.
Now, half a century later, the vase is in my studio.
The prism still works.
The spectrum moves just as slowly, the fascination is the same.
At the other end of the spectrum is the color purple.
Our vision expands there, but no further.
The scale continues, although invisible to us.
Birds and butterflies see and communicate through this color, which is imperceptible to us.
Oltre il viola
Mats Bergquist

Mats Bergquist's exceptionally quiet images and objects are reflections on emptiness, light and calm. They form projection surfaces for the invisible but tangible. In the almost monochrome works, the artist combines traditional techniques with a contemporary formal language, whereby the procedure and work process play an important role. With the complex and disciplined production process of encaustic, Mats Bergquist draws on the over 1,000 year old Greek Orthodox tradition of icon painting. After numerous work steps, the pictures only receive their typical, partly matt, partly shiny, atmospheric surface structures through the final layer of a mixture of liquid wax and pigment, which is also polished in a long process. These create a haptic effect and create a unique place of silence.
Bergquist's icons are free of figurative content, but have the power to invite viewers to pause and open a space in which the artist's experiences and cultural influences are revealed.
Mats Bergquist, born in Stockholm in 1960, lives and works in Skåne, southern Sweden. Between 1978 and 1987 he studied art and art history in Stockholm and Paris. Bergquist grew up in various countries, including Russia, Poland and China. The interest and openness in the diverse cultural influences as well as the meditative and contemplative work find their way into his minimalist art, which has a poetic sensitivity.

Born 1960 in Stockholm. Lives and works in Lövestad, South Sweden.

Education

Public and Privat Collections

Bocconi Universität, Milan
Sweden House, Brüssel
Arrhenius laboratory, University Stockholm
Hupertz, Hamburg
Schuler, Munich
Antonia Johnson Mörner, Stockholm
Giuseppina Panza di Biumo, Italy