Mats Bergquist b. 1960
Mats Bergquist (b. 1960 in Stockholm) is a Swedish artist working in both Sweden and Italy. In the borderland between minimalism and icon tradition, he creates meditative works characterized by silence and timelessness. Using simple materials and techniques—thin layers of pigment and rabbit-skin glue (encaustic) on wooden panels, sanded to a matte or shimmering surface—he produces works stripped of figurative content, but with subtle dents, bulges, and impressions.
Educated at Atelier 17 in Paris 1981–1982, Bergquist had his first solo exhibition at Gunnar Olsson Gallery in 1983 and continued to exhibit there on a regular basis until 2018. Previous solo exhibition venues include Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg, Germany (2025, 2022, 2016, 2012), Wichtendahl Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2023, 2021, 2019), The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden (2022), Marignana Arte, Venice, Italy (2018), and Mann – Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli, Naples, Italy (2016). Recent group exhibition venues include Atipografia, Arzignano, Italy (2025, 2022, 2015), Alberta Pane, Venice, Italy (2020), and Raum Scroth at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest, Germany (2017).
Bergquist is represented in several important collections, including the Panza Collection (IT) and Hupertz Collection (DE). Additionally, Bergquist’s public works can be found at Museo San Fedele, Milan; Bocconi University, Milan; Stockholm University, Stockholm; and Sweden House, Brussels.
