Gustav Hjelmgren

b. Sweden, 1979

Gustav Hjelmgren (b. Sweden, 1979) is a self-taught artist whose practice centers natural occurring forms and themes of presence, memory, and loss. In his recent series, the artist paints hypnotic compositions formed by soft concentric rings of color that emanate from a central point, evoking expanding ripples in water or the auratic glow of stars.  

In his recent series, Hjelmgren explores the tension between form and dissolution, opacity and translucence. Working with oil stick, brushes, sponges, and his hand, Hjelmgren builds softly layered surfaces defined by both a saturated solidity and a phantom quality. The circular forms linger on the edge of disappearance, emerging from the canvas ground like the echo of an image. In these works, the artist responds to his own experience of grief, a sense of time’s fluidity and the enduring resonance of a loved one’s presence. Hjelmgren imagines the paintings not as fixed symbols but as living portals, inviting pause and a silent dialogue with light, space, and the unseen. The circles do not appear static but rather pulse with movement and radiate outwards, as if to pull the viewer in. Hjelmgren indeed describes his paintings as entry points into a space where the boundaries of thought soften and linear time is disrupted, evoking instead expansion without resolution – like a reverberating exhale or an endless ripple. 

Growing up in a family of painters – his great great grandfather was the renowned Swedish painter Richard Bergh and his grandmother painted her entire life – art-making has always been central to his experience. Hjelmgren cites as inspiration the intuitive treatment of color by early Abstract Expressionists Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Joan Mitchell, as well as the work of Gerard Richter, which influences his use of a squeegee to layer oil paint. With a background as a trained nurse, Hjelmgren brings to his work a deep consideration of human experience and well-being—qualities that shape his meditative, introspective approach to painting. Hjelmgren graduated in 2003 from Linköping University. His work has been reviewed by Jerry Saltz. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.