Fredrik Nielsen Influenced by graffiti, music and pop culture, he's pushing our perception of glass into new directions

A trained glass blower, Nielsen’s raw expression is influenced by graffiti, music, and pop culture, pushing the perception of glass making in new directions. A graduate of the Orrefors Glass School and the Royal Institute of Art in Sweden as well as the Pilchuck Glass School in the United States, his work has been exhibited in New York’s Corning Museum of Glass, Sweden’s Nationalmuseum, and the Ariana Museum of Switzerland.

Colourful, unpredictable, and unique, each object is a reflection of the ever-changing waves of emotion that affect our decision-making and disposition.

Central interest in Fredrik Nielsen’s artistic practice is the body. The bodily aspects of creating his pieces, the heavy material and hot studio, has turned his process into a competition between himself and the artworks he creates. “I want the physical effort to be so big that I am creating a work that is competing with my own body. Everything that reaches this stadium of competition becomes important, then I have created a volume that is looking for the limits of body and mass.”

PartyLikeGustavVasa_0005_1

PartyLikeGustavVasa All rights reserved

 

Let’s discover more about Fredrik Nielsen

What does it mean to be an artist today?

It s the best thing, it s freedom and it s the ability to be able to search for something that you don’t really know beforehand. 

Can you tell us the creative process behind your works? Where do you find your inspirations?

I find inspiration in the life around me, music is important for me too, to be able to inject myself with I guess confidence and power. And I think that all that you consume and see and soround yourself with comes out in what you play/ make. 

What is the most difficult work you have realized and why?

I guess it s every time if you try to reach something that is like an excavation for you. I mean my main material is glass and I always try to go beyond my knowledge to how should I say, to feel alive and to keep my focus, keeping it on that level. Something that I think it s important for me is to be able to make things that I can t make up beforehand and that I cannot redo. Meaning you need to kind of know where you going, the canvas size and so on but the rest is an excavation. It s some kind of an enjoyable hell to go through it all.

Do you want to confess something that nobody knows yet about you?

I don’t know if there is.

What are your projects for the future?

More work, thinking about installations, thinking about room and space and the piece relation to it s stand. And next week heading to a glass symposium in Slovakia.

Fredrik_Nielsen_Portrait

Fredrik Nielsen Portrait