Markus Åkesson | Passage
15 January - 14 February 2026
Overview
Markus Åkesson, The Passage, 2025, oil on canvas, 180 x 135 cm.
Markus Åkesson, The Passage, 2025, oil on canvas, 180 x 135 cm.

We are pleased to present Markus Åkesson’s third solo exhibition at Berg Gallery. The exhibition features a new series of paintings in various formats, as well as sculptures in bronze and painted glass, which together suggest a new direction in Åkesson’s art.

 

Åkesson’s technically advanced paintings—characterized by dramatic gestures, drapery, and not least the interplay of light and shadow—undeniably bring to mind the Baroque Old Masters. In recent years, Åkesson has become best known for his series Now You See Me, where veiled figures and intricate textile patterns create a captivating and enigmatic visual world. In the exhibition Passage, however, new motifs are introduced: more traditional portraits, still lifes, and scenes in which nature assumes a prominent role.

 

Throughout the exhibition, the notion of passage acts as both motif and metaphor. Several of the works feature individuals who appear to be engaged in mysterious rituals, set against a natural world that is both alluring and unsettling. Other paintings focus on more literal, physical passages and moments of transition, where something is about to change or take shape.

 

The largest piece in the exhibition, These eyes are open now (2025), portrays a young woman surrounded by neatly hung garments in bright colors. She glides cautiously between them, as if something is hiding in the darkness on the other side. Or does the absence of light allow for a different way of seeing?

 

Two works share their title with the exhibition. One depicts a narrow opening in a hedge—an image that brings to mind labyrinths and the threshold between the known and unknown. The other shows a young man entering a pool filled with green water, suggesting a rite of passage.

 

Together, the works in the exhibition testify to Åkesson’s ongoing exploration of transitions between spaces, between worlds, and between states of being.

 

Markus Åkesson (b. 1975, Kalmar) lives and works in Nybro. Previous solo exhibitions include Berg Gallery, Stockholm (2023, 2021), Market Art Fair, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (2022), and Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar (2018). Additionally, his work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions such as Lentos Art Museum, Linz, Austria (2025), Fondation Francès, Clichy/Senlis, France (2025, 2018, 2016), La Manufacture – Museum of Textile Creation and History, Roubaix, France (2023), Institut Suédois, Paris (2021), and Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris (2015). Åkesson’s work is represented in the collections of Fondation Francès (FR), The Public Art Agency Sweden (SE), VIDA Museum (SE), Château du Rivau (FR), Alice Walton Family Collection (US), and Jacques-Antoine Granjon Collection (FR), as well as in numerous public and private collections in Europe, Asia, and the United States.