Child's Gaze | Konstnärshuset Svavel | Places and paths

Places connected to childhood evoke memories and moods that most people refer to in their adult lives. For me, these first important 18 years took place in Huskvarna / Jönköping. The unique topology with all the slopes, streams and ravines, all the roads, houses and events of the working community there gives me a strong sense of origin and identity. With this as a starting point I have made some brand new landscape paintings exclusively made for the exhibition Places and Paths at Konstnärshuset Svavel in Jönköping.

Using biographical references is unusual for me, but with the exhibition in my hometown, I get the opportunity to reflect on my background. Childhood for me is about original strong moods, light conditions and space- in short "to be".

The starting points for the works are photographs from places in Huskvarna. While working on the paintings and drawings, I have noticed a difference in energy level between the anonymous and random motifs I usually use to challenge my habitual way of interpreting what I see and the motifs I associate with childhood memories.

In addition to the very latest works with the project name Childs Gaze, we can see a selection of drawings, paintings and graphics based on projects diaries, Blind Chance and State of Mind.

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Kenneth Pils was born in 1964 in Jönköping, grew up in Huskvarna, and studied at National College of Art and and the Royal Art Academy in Stockholm. He is nowadays active in Stockholm and exhibits regularly in Sweden and Europe. He has made a number of public commissions, including Danderyd Hospital and Södersjukhuset.

Kenneth Pils works with figurative painting, sculpture, graphics and installation works. He often works with "found images" and portraits in a watercolor-like style. The painting practice is based on a layer painting where transparent layers of colors are laid on top of each other to generate many different shades. To work with painting is indeed a creative act in the moment with the opportunity to transcend the given and a way to evoke new unexpected works.