Mårten Medbo

Hailing from Sweden, Mårten Medbo is one of Scandinavia’s foremost ceramic artists. He completed his PhD in Crafts at the University of Gothenburg, and received his MFA from the University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design in Stockholm. His work has been exhibited at Galleri Landborgen (Sweden), Galerie NeC (France), and Venus Over Manhattan (NY). His work resides in the collections of the National Museum of Art, Craft and Design (Sweden), The Icelandic Museum of Design and Applied Art, and the Gotland Art Museum. He has received an IASPIS Working Grant, Swedish Art Grant, and Swedish Institute of Cultural Exchange Grant.

Medbo’s work explores ideas of ugliness and beauty, desire and repulsion. He uses both abstract and figurative forms in his work, giving them a quality that occupies a space somewhere in between these categories. During his Arts/Industry Pottery residency, Medbo used glaze and mold techniques to create not quite human-like forms.