Jan Håfström

“I learnt how to dream at the cinema; a heritage from my father. My mother taught me to deal with life in a more practical manner. Still, she was the one who collected all the drawings and comics I made as a child. This dreamy world was stored in an old suitcase in the attic. At some point at the end of the 1960s she gave it to me. I’ll never recover from the shock. The secret of the suitcase will probably never be revealed but it allows me a glimpse of a dimension of life that is total, original and intoxicating. My entire adult life, all my work, is an attempt to recall that feeling.”

Jan Håfström
Born in 1937
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

Education
1963–1968 The Royal University College of Fine Arts (KKH), Stockholm, Sweden
1958–1962 MAPhilosophy, Lund University, Sweden

Five selected solo exhibitions (of some fifty)
2005 Jan Håfström och Carl Gustav Pilo, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
2001 Walker, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden
1995 Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1988 The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA
1977 Anders Tornberg Galleri, Lund, Sweden

Five selected group exhibitions (of some fifty)
2006 Moderna Utställningen, Moderna museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2001 Carnegie Art Award, First Prize Winner, The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
1990 La Biennale di Venezia, the Nordic Pavilion, Venice, Italy
1980 La Biennale di Venezia (with Ola Billgren), Venice, Italy
1977 A Painting Show, P.S1, New York, USA

Represented
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
AstrupFearnley, Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
Hovikoddens Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Malmö konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden
Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden

For further information on Jan Håfström’s art, see Book of the Dead, exhibition catalogue, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm 2009.