Opening: Markus Åkesson’s “Bestiary” at Sweden’s national museum of glass

Markus Åkesson seeks an almost William Morris-like connection to ancient ritualistic objects.

At 2 PM on Saturday, February 13th, the Smælands Museum in Sweden will be hosting an opening reception for an exhibition of the unsettling glass forms of Markus Åkesson. Entitled “Bestiary,” the exhibition will feature work seeking to reconnect with an earlier era when totems and ritualistic objects brought man and nature closer in more profound ways than is currently possible in our own hyper-rational, high-technology era. A painter and sculptor with glass, Åkesson also makes purely organic forms resembling other-worldly sea creatures in iridescent green.

“ My decorated objects relate to the ‘cult-objects’ that in past times offered mankind a channel to a fictional world for those moments when reality seems static and pointless,” Åkesson writes in his artist’s statement. “Worship of objects has followed mankind, from the Venus of Willendorf to the careworn saints of churches. I am interested in objects that tell a story – not in an immediate visual manner, but through their assumed purpose, as props in scenarios.

Åesson's background as a glass engraver is evident in the surface treatment of his intricate and other-worldly work Xenon (green).

With a background as a glass engraver, Åkesson has alternated between painting and sculptural glass. He works out of a studio in an old industrial glassworks district called Ateljéhus Pukeberg which has become a center of creative activity.

His exhibition will run through May 14th, 2010.

IF YOU GO: