Mats Hjelm b. 1959
Mats Hjelm is one of Sweden's most prominent video artists and documentary filmmakers. Since the early 1990's, his monumental video work has been shown world-wide, and the documentary film Black Nation (2008) has received international acclaim over the past years. In a number of large-scale video installations, such as Black Like Him (2008), Father's Day at the Shrine of the Black Madonna (2006), and the Trilogy (White Flight /Man to Man/Kap Atlantis, 1997-2003), the history of the Civil Rights movement is in focus. Poetic images interwoven with documentary footage tell stories of oppression, pride and the complexity of integration. But Hjelm's work also encompasses more down-to-earth video works such as After Hours (2010), where dancers in business suits perform an incredulous dance with the office space as a backdrop.
Mats Hjelm (b. 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden) holds an MFA in Sculpture from University College of Art, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and he has also studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the US, Stockholm University and University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Museum of African American History, Detroit, Dubai International Film Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Venice Biennale. In the summer of 2017, the comprehensive project The Other Shore was shown at Museu de Arte Moderna - MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Solo exhibitions based on the same project were later shown in 2019 at Norrtälje Konsthall and in 2021 at Bohusläns Museum in Uddevalla. He is represented in several private and public collections including Moderna Museet, Malmö Art Museum, Uppsala Art Museum and Public Art Agency Sweden. Hjelm was awarded the Royal Institute of Art's residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2019.
-
Mats Hjelm – Memories of Lakes Lost
3 October - 1 November 2024We are pleased to present Mats Hjelm’s fourth show at the gallery, Memories of Lakes Lost. In this ensemble of new works, Hjelm presents a poetic meditation through a film...Read more -
Mats Hjelm – Simple Sabotage Field Guide
11 November - 18 December 2021We are pleased to present Mats Hjelm's third, and largest show to date at the gallery, Simple Sabotage Field Guide. The monumental, four-channel video installation may be seen as a...Read more -
Mats Hjelm – The Healer
22 November - 21 December 2018Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to present Mats Hjelm's second solo show at the gallery, The Healer. The new project consists of four photographic works with luminous signs, two parallel...Read more -
Mats Hjelm – LOOP Art Fair for video art
Almanac Barcelona 24 - 25 May 2017 -
Mats Hjelm – Taste of Salt
3 October - 10 November 2013Romanticized in literature and myth for its ability to heal and reaffirm, the sea offers an instinctive setting for Mats Hjelm’s meditation on the histories of the transatlantic Middle Passage...Read more
-
"Mats Hjelm på Cecilia Hillström Gallery"
Masha Taavoniku, Konsten.net, 29 November 2021 -
”Videoinstallation med formmässigt säkra förvrängningar”
Milou Allerholm, DN, 24 November 2021 -
”Vacker resa över oceaner av vemod”
Thomas Olsson, SvD, 27 February 2019 -
”Mats Hjelm tvinnar en tät visuell väv”
Magnus Bons, DN, 30 January 2019 -
"Hjelms film är poetisk på ett svidande sätt och varje tagning är minutiöst utförd."
Kristoffer Grip, Konsten.net, 15 December 2018 -
Konstens frågeformulär # 43: Mats Hjelm
Redaktionen, Konsten.net, 22 March 2017 -
”…mångbottnade skildringar av vår politiska historia…”
Karsten Thurfjell, SR Kulturnytt, 26 October 2015 -
”…en historisk betraktelse som mest av allt liknar poesi.”
Cecilia Bromberg, SR Kulturnytt, 9 October 2013