Fredrik Roos Art Grant of 2023 – Erik Uddén

Erik Uddén was born in 1990 and grew up in Söderhamn, Hälsingland. He is currently both active and living in Stockholm. Uddén completed his master’s degree at Kungl. Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts 2022 and his bachelor’s degree at Malmö Art Academy in 2020. He has previously studied at Pernby’s painting school and the Art School in Gävle.

Uddén has been awarded scholarships from the Academy of Fine Arts (R. and H. Svensson’s donation fund), 2022 and Karin and Erik Engman’s scholarship in Gävle 2018. His work has been shown at Mazettihuset in Malmö, Konstakademien in Stockholm, Sandvikens Konsthall, Bollnäs Konsthall and Galleri Bo Bjerggaard in Copenhagen.

Uddén works with a painting that dissolves outlines between sculpture and painting where the span frame and canvas are often used as sculptural form grips. He uses color to negotiate with and transform a variety of materials, conventional as well as unconventional. Uddén’s work examines the painting’s ambiguity as both window and body to navigate the room.

Fredrik Roos (b. 1951, d. 1991) was a  financier and art collector. In 1988 he founded the art museum Rooseum – Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö, where international exhibitions were interspersed with Fredrik Roo’s collection of Nordic contemporary art. The museum was dissolved in 2006 and 60 works from the collection were sold. The proceeds from the sale became the basis of the current foundation.

The recipient of the scholarship must be “An artist who – in the spirit of Fredrik Roos – is prepared to take risks in his artistry. One who believes in himself and who has an expression of his own. The artist must be no more than 35 years old and come from the Nordic countries and work preferably with painting and sculpture.”

2022 Judit Kristensen (exhibition at Artipelag)
2021 Gabriel Karlsson (exhibition at Artipelag)2020 Siri Elfhag (exhibition at Artipelag)2019 Sara Nielsen Bonde (exhibition at Artipelag)2018 Jonas Malmberg (exhibition at Artipelag)2017 Oskar Hult, Josefine Östberg Olsson andJonas Silfversten Bergman2016 Sandra Mujinga, André Talborn and Karl Patric Näsman2015 Martha Ossowska Persson, Idun Baltzersen and Ida Persson2014 Tomas Lundgren2013 Paul Fägerskiöld