Jacob Dahlgren’s work is concerned with a dialogue between the authoritative singularity of pure formal abstraction, and its position within a variable, complex and social shared culture. His collections of ordinary objects, often domestic, repetitive, industrially manufactured and ubiquitous, stand in their gestalt form as a proxy for ‘High Modernist Abstract Painting’, and for all the ideological territory that ‘Twentieth Century Art Theory’ has staked out for it. The contributing objects, meanwhile, signify both the human and the collective; each represents an individual choice, to be uniquely used or consumed, yet together, they stand for the community, and thus become democratic, rather than authored.

Jacob Dahlgren (b. 1970) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied from 1994 to 1999 at The Royal Institute of Fine Art, Stockholm, and he received his M.F.A. in 1999.

Among other exhibitions: KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki (2013, 2011, 2010), Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2010, 2013), Collective Gallery Edinburgh (2013), Galleri Andrehn-Schiptjenko Stockholm (2013, 2009), Galerie Anhava, Helsinki (2013, 2009, 2002), Gallery 400 at University of Illinois at Chicago (2012), Workplace Gallery Gateshead UK (2012, 2011), Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2010), Schirn,Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2011), Daimler Art Collection, Berlin (2010) Bielefelder Kunstverein (2009), Momentum, Galleri F 15 Moss (2009) 52nd Venice Biennale di Venezia (2007), P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, New York (2006) Kunsthalle Budapest (2006), October salon, Belgrade (2006) Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2006), Malmö Konsthall (2005),Tramway, Glasgow (2002).

Dahlgren's work is currently included in the following collections: British Museum, London, England; Chamber of Labour, Vienna, Austria; Daimler Collection, Stuttgart, Germany; Eskilstuna Konstmuseum, Eskilstuna, Sweden; European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany; Göteborgs konstmuseum, Gothenburg, Sweden; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, USA; Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland; Maria Bonnier-Dahlins stiftelse, Stockholm, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.