Mats Bergquist | Nocturne

Mats Bergquist works in the borderland between minimalism and icon tradition. His meditative, often monochrome works are stripped of figurative content, but reveal subtle dents, bulges, and impressions. The working process is highly time-consuming and repetitive, relying on traditional materials and methods. By applying thin layers of pigment and rabbit-skin glue on wooden panels, which are sanded to a matte or shimmering surface, he creates his tactile works.

Bergquist’s works clearly relate to the Greek Orthodox icon tradition, while also engaging with questions of iconoclasm—a recurring phenomenon across the Abrahamic faiths. At the same time, one can discern references to other religious expressions and to the ritual, spiritual, and transcendent in a broader, more existential sense.

The exhibition takes its name from the musical genre nocturne—night music. The genre developed during the 19th century and is characterized by slow, often melancholic compositions. The title serves as a lens through which the works can be experienced, inviting associations with silence, stillness, and contemplation. At the same time, it can be read as a continuation of Bergquist’s previous exhibition Oltre il viola (”beyond violet”), where violet, marking the end of the rainbow’s spectrum, suggests the onset of night.

Mats Bergquist (b. 1960) was born in Stockholm but grew up in Russia, Poland, and France. He has spent most of his career abroad, exhibiting at museums and galleries primarily in Italy and Germany. In 1983, he had his first solo exhibition at Galleri Gunnar Olsson in Stockholm, where he continued to exhibit on a regular basis until 2018. Other solo exhibitions include Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg (2025, 2022, 2016, 2012), Wichtendahl Galerie, Berlin (2023, 2021, 2019), Konstakademien, Stockholm (2022), Marignana Arte, Venice (2018), and MANN – Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli, Naples (2016). Previous group exhibition venues include Atipografia, Arzignano (2025, 2022, 2015), Alberta Pane, Venice (2020), and Raum Scroth at Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest (2017).

Bergquist is represented in several important collections, including the Panza Collection (IT) and Hupertz Collection (DE). His public works can be found as Museo San Fedele, Milan; Bocconi University, Milan; Stockholm University; and Sweden House, Brussels.