Jockum Nordstrom

Jockum Nordstrom

Nordström was born in 1963 in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up watching his mother sew, and has always been interested in textiles. He has made drawings as long as he can remember. He studied art at Stockholm College of Art and Design, and began showing his work in Sweden in the late eighties. He makes furniture, designs carpets, illustrates children’s books (including the popular Swedish series Sailor and Pekka), designs album covers, constructs architectural models, and makes animated films. When he discovered he was allergic to oil paints, he adopted watercolor, gouache, graphite, and scissors as his primary tools. He builds many images with collage, and is always making new parts (he has a whole drawer of heads) to fill up his compositions.

Nordström is known for his collages, paintings, drawings and sculptures that knit together references to folk art and outsider art, jazz, surrealist collage, furniture and architectural design, human sexual habits and maritime lore. He has also written children's books and designed album covers. His work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Moderna Museet and Magasin 3 in Stockholm, and the Gothenburg Art Museum.