PARIS.- The Institut suédois is dedicating its autumn exhibition to Andreas Eriksson (b. 1975), a leading figure in the contemporary art scene. His meditative work, with its rich verdant tones, is interspersed with that of Ivan Aguéli (1869–1917), artist, thinker and seasoned traveller.

Applying paint in blocks, layers and brushstrokes, Andreas Eriksson builds visual structures that can be interpreted as ways of experiencing the world. Geological strata, minerals, moss, leaves and bark: his paintings are layers of materiality, accumulations of energy and time in a variety of densities and forms. His art is fundamentally linked to a single place: Medelplana, at the foot of the Kinnekulle plateau, in the southwest of Sweden, near Lake Vänern. The earthy, saturated colours of his paintings come from the landscapes surrounding his house – the backdrop to his daily life.

Juxtaposed with Andreas Eriksson’s monumental paintings are ten small-format works by Ivan Aguéli, a nineteenth-century painter and mystic. Their reduced scale is an indication of the fact that these works were created on the road, a long way from his native Sala, a small mining town located in a mountainous region in the heart of Sweden. His landscapes evoke the south: they are sun-bleached, luminous; the forms are reduced and simplified, almost Cubist, as though painted in haste and with fervour. Ivan Aguéli’s works were selected by Andreas Eriksson, who wanted to give them a prominent place in his exhibition. In terms of their palette, motifs, atmosphere and approach, the works of the two artists are almost polar opposites. Aguéli’s bright light and open skies contrast vividly with Eriksson’s dark, mineral landscapes.

Ivan Aguéli believed that art could be a portal to a higher truth. His life was a constant quest, shaped by various spiritual, political and aesthetic doctrines. A journey that took him from Sala to places as far afield as Paris and Cairo. From the Lutheran Protestantism of his childhood to Swedenborg’s mysticism, and from anarchism to the esoteric Islam of the Sufi tradition.

At first glance, one might think that the differences between the two artists could not be greater. Ivan Aguéli, the anarchist, the Sufi, whose life of wandering in search of wisdom led him to an early grave, in extreme poverty. And Andreas Eriksson, whose art emerges from a single place. One constantly on the move, the other making immobility a necessary condition of painting. Yet, when we see their work side by side, the biographical differences seem to fade away. What unites them is the presence of the sensory in their practices. Earth, stones, trees for Andreas Eriksson; sky, sun and moon for Ivan Aguéli. These paintings live in the same atmosphere and reflect a common quest for truth.

Curator: Sara Arrhenius, Director of the Institut suédois

To accompany the exhibition, a book presents the work of the two artists in parallel (Ljus på ljus: Andreas Eriksson & Ivan Aguéli, Art & Theory Publishing, 2026). With a text by Sara Arrhenius.