The Spring Salon at Liljevalchs is usually considered a long-awaited sign of spring. And indeed: a row of bronze horse hooves sprouts from the wooden panel in one of the exhibition halls. An exception, however, is the lifelike floral display. Spring salons are usually an excellent thermometer for society’s ass, and this year the fever is unusually high.
“Many of the works are absurd, with a surreal feel and nightmarish scenarios,” says Liljevalch director Joanna Sandell Wright as she takes DN on a first tour while museum technicians are still working on lighting the exhibition.
As soon as you enter the first room, the viewer is greeted by an atmospheric work. A blood-red liquid splashes from a stone fountain into the white porcelain of a sink.
– At last year’s Spring Salon, artist Tindra Englund had a beautiful stone sculpture that could be placed in the garden. This year she did one called “Don’t forget to wash your hands.” The idea came to her when she was working in Ramallah in the West Bank and saw how Palestinians were being treated while Sweden continued to sell weapons to Israel, says Joanna Sandell Wright.
An uncertain and worrying one Contemporaneity therefore characterizes the exhibition to the highest degree. A few meters away, a refugee family walks towards a painting; in another room, two strikers are portrayed in front of Tesla’s factory. Right next door, Trump and Putin are having fun together, dressed for their Ibiza vacation. And next to it, the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb rises in the background of cross-stitch embroidery.
Not without it feeling like a journey back in time to the political 70s.
“You feel a much greater desire to comment on the present,” says Joanna Sandell Wright.
As always, nature is present in the painting. But something has happened here too. Perhaps nature seems threatening and decaying, especially in times of climate crisis. We just passed a scene of three rats clinging to a withered plant. Behind it lies a desolate landscape. We stop at two crocodiles who are sitting and grilling around a campfire in the forest. Even in the flames of the fire, two crocodiles dance.
– Here too we are dealing with the nightmarish and absurd. It is so interesting to see these traces in the exhibition. These are our dreams and nightmares. Art has the ability to create a kind of butterfly wing vibration about where we come from and where we are going.
When the doors open For this year’s exhibition on February 13, Joanna Sandell Wright went through months of intensive work, first selecting the works and then creating a hanging in which the many voices of Swedish art play with or contrast with one another. It’s quite an effort to get the hang of it so that the audience can appreciate the wealth of motifs and styles.
When the jury began viewing, there were 3,394 works. 255 artists remained.
– We haven’t had so many recognized artists since the 1950s. Half of those who entered are under 40 years old. So it’s a very young spring salon.
In addition to the director of the art gallery himself, the jury included Paul Adamah, artist and frontman of the band Boko Yout, Abir Boukhari, curator with roots in Syria, and Carola Grahn, Sámi artist. They are selected to bring their perspectives with their different backgrounds into the selection.
Were there heated discussions?
– Yes, it will always be like that. The conflicts come towards the end, when you have gotten to know each other a little. Then you feel comfortable enough to argue. It’s like in all relationships. So it was very… No, maybe I’m exaggerating. If we cannot agree, the work may not be included. If there is someone who thinks “this shouldn’t be included,” then it won’t work. But when you have so many good works, you can imagine losing a battle. It’s very, very good that I can’t take part.
Not yet the artists here. With one exception. At a table full of old-fashioned dishes and a chair at each end we find actress and performance artist Karolina Willebrand Vinnberg. She was inspired by the performance queen Marina Abramović and her famous work “The artist is present”. Abramović sat quietly at a table at Moma in New York for hour after hour, staring at anyone who would sit across from her for a moment.
A red wig with pigtails gossips about what Willebrand Vinnberg has in mind. She disguises herself as Pippi on the coffee rope and is completely mute, but with lively facial expressions she entices the audience to sit at the table and eat pastries with her.
– Either it’s very quiet, or it can… well, derail a little, she says.
She’s tried it before. When she completed a master’s degree in acting a few years ago, she tried out her Pippi in front of different audiences.
How do people react?
– I was a little nervous when I wanted to do it for the first time, but I immediately realized that people wanted to play. By dressing up as this character that everyone has a relationship with and that has many different meanings, I felt like the audience felt a certain closeness to Pippi.
She believes that there is a dark source of loneliness in Pippi.
– I have to play with that. I’m happy when someone sits down and sad when I’m left alone. The simple structure has a great influence on the relationship with the audience.
Karolina Willebrand Vinnberg is scheduled to perform her act for a few hours most weekends when Vårssalongen is open.
– It will be very exciting to meet such a large audience with so many different people.
Facts.Some other trends to keep an eye on this year
The cell phone. Appears in the motifs of many paintings. However, the influence of the cell phone is particularly evident in the fact that cell phone photos often served as a template for the paintings and the detail is identical to the cell phone images.
Strong ethnic representation. This year artists from all over Sapmi, including Norway and Finland, were able to submit works. Artists with roots in countries other than Sweden are also well represented.
Rural/urban. An integral part of Vårsalonger. This year, among other things, with a room entirely dedicated to this opposite couple.
Beyond squares and rectangles. Painting is no longer just a painting on a wall. Cylinders, puzzle pieces and circles are some of the strange formats in which the images are being created this year.
Neon. As usual, figurative painting is completely predominant. However, photography is almost completely missing. Instead, neon art has become so prominent that an entire darkened room has been dedicated to the brightly colored works.
AI. There is no ban on the use of AI in Vårssalongen, but only in one work, a collage, could Joanna Sandell Wright say with certainty that AI was used. “They follow a certain aesthetic. Often they’re not that interesting,” she says.
Facts.Spring Salon at Liljevalchs 2026
The spring salon begins Art spring in Stockholm and has been since 1921. This year Exhibition takes place between February 13th and May 3rd.
3,394 works was submitted. 255 artists were accepted.
The jury passed by Liljevalch’s manager Joanna Sandell Wright together with Paul Adamah, artist and frontman of the band Boko Yout, Abir Boukhari, curator with roots in Syria, and Carola Grahn, Sámi artist.
