Stroke
VERK Showroom, Stockholm
Stroke is a presentation of paintings by Torbjörn Johansson shown at VERK Showroom in Stockholm, focusing on color and the brushstroke as a trace of movement.
Color is the central element in Torbjörn Johansson’s work. In the summer presentation at VERK’s showroom, a selection of paintings from the series Strokes was shown. The title refers to the movement that constitutes the motif in each work.
A large green painting dominated one wall, while the opposite wall presented a grid of twenty-eight smaller works. The paintings form an abstract investigation of color, form, materiality, and movement. Against often monochrome backgrounds, one or several distinct brushstrokes appear — traces of concentrated gestures that freeze a moment within a larger flow.
Johansson’s process is both planned and intuitive, requiring complete presence. The works retain the memory of bodily movement and suggest a temporal extension beyond the canvas, implying both a before and an after.