Jonas Löfgren

"getaway"  graphite on paper  2012

"The House"  graphite and watercolor  2009

"Nowhere"  graphite on paper  2011

"The Cellar"  graphite on paper  2010

"Diamond #8"  graphite, ink and watercolor  2011

Jonas Löfgren is a Swedish artist whose work fits into that wealthy vein of contemporary work called pop-surrealism or sometimes low brow art (there's some confusion about the terms). European takes on the genre tend to be less literal than their American counterparts, more cryptic, less obviously eye-winkingly ironic. Many elements here are common tropes: the generally realist rendering of cartoon like figurations of pre-adolescent characters at odds with a dark confusing world. I enjoy this kind of work in general as anyone whose been following along with me for a while would probably know. I like the lack of pretension, such a welcome relief from all the inaccessible over conceptualized material that haunts the museums and galleries of the high end contemporary art world. But despite the lack of pretension, there is a tremendous amount of both skill and emotional honesty on display. The work is both personal and reflective of a global cultural point of view (which I'm still struggling to pin down and define... no doubt when I do it will have long since moved on). Mr. Löfgren brings to all of this his own unique bag of images and props as well as a haunting drawing style. You can see plenty more including some animation work on his website: www.jonaslofgren.com