Patrik Aarnivaara
The Bærtling Scholarship 2016
Patrik Aarnivaara, born in 1977 in Uppsala, lives and works in Malmö. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Valand Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg in 2005 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Malmö Art Academy in 2007.
Justification:
Over the past decade, Aarnivaara has explored the boundaries between technology, photography, and sculpture through artworks that activate the viewer in various ways. Through Aarnivaara’s work, Bærtling’s futuristic theses on the “art of the space age” find a contemporary counterpart: Like Bærtling, Aarnivaara is interested in how technologies and materials shape the present era. This is something that both artists have approached through a stripped-down aesthetic that is at once tightly controlled and openly expansive.