Lovisa Sköld

Lovisa Sköld grew up in Bredaryd outside Värnamo in Småland, in a place shaped by the work ethic of the Gnosjö region, where diligence and a proper job came first. Becoming an artist, as she has put it herself, was not on the map. After upper secondary school she moved to Gothenburg to train as a teacher of Swedish. It was when she took art as her second subject at HDK-Valand that she realised it was the act of making itself that drove her. She graduated as an art teacher in 2011.

After a few years in the classroom she left teaching to paint full time. Today she spends her days in her studio by Stigbergstorget in Majorna, Gothenburg, where all her works are made.

In recent years her work has received wide attention in the Swedish media, from SVT and TV4 to Göteborgs-Posten, which named her one of the cultural promises of 2021 in art. In 2016 she was nominated for the Göteborgspriset in the art category.

Sköld explores our time’s fascination with the shiny, the polished and the visually controlled. Drawing on fashion, sport and popular culture, she paints lacquer, latex, rubber, leather and metallic fabrics – but also bin bags and tarpaulins, often in entirely everyday settings. The material plays the leading role. She moves in close, crops her images like a fashion magazine and lets the model remain anonymous.

Beneath the perfect surface there is often a comic or vulnerable undertone that hints at how constructed our lives and identities can be. What happens when you scratch the surface?

Each painting begins with a photograph, usually one Sköld has taken herself. The image is then built up in oil, a medium she values for its long drying time, which gives her room to work out shadows, folds, reflections and contrasts with meticulous precision. She works with deep concentration, sometimes six hours at a stretch, and never starts over from scratch.

Her subjects move between the everyday and the fabulous. Kettlebells, bowling pins, boxing gloves and tennis balls receive the same luxurious treatment as gold boots, glossy coats and twins in matching lacquer. The result is images that feel at once familiar and strangely unreal.

Alongside her studio work, Sköld carries out public commissions. She has painted murals in Gothenburg for Vasakronan and the Swedish Transport Administration, public works for Göteborgs Stadsteater, Löthallen in Sundbyberg and Partille Municipality, and was the collaborating artist for Backa Teater’s 2025/26 season. She also created the official poster for Göteborg Film Festival 2026, featuring a red, glossy coat inspired by the colour of classic cinema seats.

In 2023 the Gothenburg Museum of Art acquired her painting Brun kappa (2022) for its collection. Her work is also held by Göteborgs Stadsteater, Jönköpings läns museum and 17 Swedish municipalities and regions. She has received a one-year working grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee (2021), the Iris culture grant (2015) and the Värnamo culture grant (2014).

• 2025–2026 Glossy Worlds – Jönköpings läns museum / Jönköping, Sweden
• 2025 Premium – Galleri Backlund / Gothenburg, Sweden
• 2024 Soft polyester – POM Gallery / Mariefred, Sweden
• 2020 Obligatorisk närvaro – POM Gallery / Mariefred, Sweden
• 2019 Galleri Konsthallen, curated by POM Gallery / Stockholm, Sweden
• 2015 Gummifabriken / Värnamo, Sweden