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Frank Björklund's painting "The Invention" is one of our highlight in Mollbrink's stand at London Art Fair 2024.
This painting has a strong ecological message!
2023
oil on canvas, 180x130 cm
Read more about the artist and his thoughts about this painting.
It didn´t happen right away. Slowly, but steady the snow melted and soon vanished completely. The landscape changed. Seas retracted. He watched his fellow birds take refugee elsewhere. Only the most resilient stayed.
Being a resourceful penguin, educated and working as engineer, he just couldn´t sit around doing nothing. The philosophy of the Circle. Condensation and evaporation. The clouds are always there. Hmm... a thought and a plan. Gathering parts. Bolts and nuts. Taps, cogs and gears. Pipes following the power flow. Hard work, sweat and modulating. After a couple of months the machine was ready and working. According to plan and idea.
Here you can see showing his invention, proudly I might add. Now he´s travelling the land far and wide. Helping others with his machine and services. You can trust the penguins.
If you look closely at the machine, you will see that it all works. Power of the transmission and gears to the pump. Suction power and flow. Down to the cooling system. Yes, it all works.
If it wasn´t for a little thing called, laws of reality.
But then again, Necessity knows no laws.
Frank Björklund, 2023
Swedish artist, born 1960 in Härnösand. Autodidact.
Frank Björklunds debuted as an exhibitor in Östersund in 1985.
The first paintings testified to his admiration for the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte, who became his great idol. However, Björklund considered that he was a rather clumsy artist, then Dalí was better as a painter. He, on the other hand, could stay awake for two or three days to be able to see dimly, but it's nothing for me, says Björklund.
Björklund's surreal and humorous images cannot be compared to any other Swedish artist. Possibly he feels a certain friendship with GAN, the Swedish surrealist, Gösta Adrian Nilsson, who today is counted among Sweden’s greatest artists from the twentieth century.
Nowadays, Björklund is such a technical virtuoso that he can paint like Caravaggio. Fabrics, shadows and lights, surfaces of all kinds.
He reads lots of books in all sorts of genres, "it fills up the store of ideas", when he wants to relax he plays hard rock.
Frank paints in an idea world, where all the big questions exists. Politics, environment, sex, philosophy and so on. Where and who are we and where are we going.
The painting goes where the idea takes it. Whichever it´s a still life, a landscape or portraying man, the idea rules.
He uses renaissance allegory’s, everyday objects and modern icons to give you clues where the painting is heading.
Because it´s all a journey.
He paints in the surreal tradition with a modern twist.
As Frank says:
- You´ve got to honor your heroes. That´s why he has a mind like Magritte and follows the painting technique of Dali.
"Make your voice heard"
2023
oil on canvas, 40x90 cm, this painting will be exhibited at London Art Fair 2024
Frank on titles:
A good title should be like a ticket to a good journey.
The specific words in the title should give you clues and direction to where the painting is heading. Yes, of course, we have different backgrounds and therefore different references and experiences to words. But that only means the journey is different for all of us. The more you can read in to painting the longer ride you will get. Sometimes it never stops. Even though the image is the same…
The painting should have a literary quality. There should be a story, a thought that draws you in. Like the renaissance painters I like to use allegories or more modern icons to give hints and to lead you in. Into the inner landscape of the image.
And with a little luck, into yourself.”
