E-mail lovisa@axen.se
Phone +46 (0) 73 574 8720
Studio Ateljé XX, Malmö (SWE)
Instagram @Lovisa.axen
About
Lovisa Axén (b. 1996, Götlunda, Sweden) is a Malmö-based artist working primarily with textile techniques. Her work begins with fragments: a memory, a created image, or a detail that refuses to disappear. Through labor-intensive processes, she explores how images, recollections, and narratives are stored, altered, and reconstructed over time.
Working with hand-dyed shirt buttons, cable ties, embroidery, and other textile techniques, Axén builds images piece by piece, often from thousands of individual components. The construction of the image itself is central to her practice. Each component holds only a fragment of the whole, and through accumulation, a coherent image takes shape. From a distance, the works appear complete, while up close they dissolve into their individual parts. Axén approaches this process as a form of storage, where information is preserved through material but inevitably altered as it is translated and reconstructed.
Through repetitive acts of stitching, tying, and assembling, Axén examines what happens to information when it is taken apart and put together again. This slow and deliberate process becomes a way of preserving a particular image or moment while also transforming it. As the reconstruction takes time, the information and context surrounding the original image may shift before the work is complete. Axén is interested in this tension between preservation and transformation, and in how something can be preserved without ever remaining exactly the same.
Axén’s ongoing master’s studies in Archival Science at Uppsala University extend these questions into the field of archives, exploring how information is preserved, stored, and transformed over time.
In recent work, these questions also engage with contemporary digital environments and their influence on perception, memory, and experience. Online spaces, algorithmic feeds, and endlessly circulating images shape how we navigate and make sense of the world. By translating digital imagery into tactile objects composed of physical fragments, Axén creates a dialogue between the handmade and the virtual. Through this translation, she examines how images, knowledge, and memory are fragmented, stored, distorted, and reconstructed across both material and digital forms.
Interest
For collaborations, commissions, artist talks, or studio visits at Ateljé XX in Malmö, please get in touch via email; lovisa@axen.se
Education
Uppsala University
MA in Archival Science, 2025–2027
Konstfack
University of Arts, Crafts And Design;
BFA Textile, 2018-2021
Nyckelviksskolan
Color, Shape & Craft, 2017-2018
Beckmans Design School
Visual Communication, Evening School, 2017-2018
Hällefors Folkhögskola
Interior Architecture & Graphic Design, 2016-2017
Residencies
Textile Arts Center, AIR 15, New York
Icelandic Textile Center; Ós Textile Residency
Artist in office at Konsthantverkscentrum (KHVC)
Represented By
Eleventh Hour Art
Brooklyn, New York
Member of the Board
Konstfrämjandet Västmanland
(Swedish Arts Promotion Centre, Västmanland)
Since Spring 2026
Artworks In Public Collections
Statens Konstrådet (The Public Art Agency), SWE
Name of artwork:
Deadheading
Year of acquisition: 2026
Rian Design Museum, SWE
Name of artwork: Schmetterling I & II
Year of acquisition: 2023
Name of artwork: STARDUST I
Year of acquisition: 2023
Uppsala Kommun, SWE
Konsthantverkcentrum (KHVC), SWE
Name of artwork: STARDUST III
Year of acquisition: 2022
Solo/Duo Exhibitions
Lovisa Axén: Ambitious Failure
Debutant 2025
We´ve Been Trying To Reach You
The Female Urge To Feel Small
Group Exhibitions
2026
Up Close!
Karin!
2025
The Other Art Fair: Presented by TAC
Tell me more!
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Siden Soufli
Art for Gagnef Festival
Pompa Shop & Shapeshifter ft. Lovisa Axén
Lekke Festival
Konsthantverkliga Lagningar
COMA (season 2)
2024
9 Contemporary Textile Artists Interpret Karin Bergöö Larsson
Towards The Path Of Totality
Liljevalchs Vårsalong with Liv Strömquist
Improvisation & handarbete
! Ateljé-rensning
The Shape Of Play
2023
Stockholm Craft Week: Alumni
Nesting Part II
Spin
Katla #3
Lidelsen
2022
Archives
Progress
Exploring
Gustaf Westman, The Pavilion
Summer Window exhibition
Hjorten Skulpturpark
Art Or Work
Zoologi at Artworks
Spring Break
2021
The Ghost In The Thread
Stab Someone In The Back
Can You Repeat That?
Österåker Art Hall Summer Exhibition
Konstfack's spring exhibition
Tete-A-Tete
Hang In There
Salong Sergel
2020
T.E.X.
Liljevalch's spring salon
PAY
Craft Pop Up
2019
LUNCH
Rhythm ON/OFF
On The Thread
Open Ataljér
Group Exhibition at Konstfack, Stockholm (SWE)
LUSH
Group Exhibition at Konstfack Student Gallary, Stockholm (SWE)
Other Works
- Textile Work for Västerås City´s Summer Street 2026
- Assisted Liv Strömquist in translating her illustrations into textile works for her solo exhibition, Where Is My Mind? at Kalmar Art Museum, 2026
- Art Workshop for Uncan Art, Norberg, 2026
-
Art for Gagnef Festival - Lek & Bus, 2025
-
Textile for Gallery Vera at the library in Noberg, 2024
- Assisting Liv Strömquist, Dec 2022 - Jan 2024
-
Textile art for Murmur´s live concerts, 2023
- Vinyl cover for Nils Agnes, 2023
- Assisting Linnéa Andersson with mural painting, Dec 2022
-
Book cover for Simon Magnusson’s Doctoral thesis, Södertörns Högskola, 2022
-
Stage clothes and scenography for Konstellation; Kvartett summer tour 2022
-
Mirrors for APLACE Julbazar 2021
- Leader of Web Design Course for Master Students in Craft! at Konstfack - University for Arts, Craft & Design, 2021
- Textile Patchworks for Åsa Maj Norman, 2021
-
VÅT Swimwear, Konstfacks julmarknad 2020
- Member of the selection committee, Nyckelviksskolan 2018
Art Grants / Awards
-
Västmanlands Debutant Prize, 2025
-
Malmö City Cultural Grant, 2025
-
The Swedish Grant Committee: Travel Grant, 2025
- Malmö City Studio Grant, 2025-2026
- Estrid Ericsons Foundation, 2025
- Helge Ax: Son Johnsons Stiftelse -Travel Grant, 2025
-
Estrid Ericsons Foundation, 2024
-
Axel N Andersson’s Testament Foundation, 2023
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Estrid Ericsons Foundation, 2023
-
Textile Arts Center (TAC) Partial residence scholarship, 2023
-
Fabrikör J. L. Eklunds Crafts foundation, 2023
-
The Swedish Grant Committee; Assistant scholarship with Liv Strömquist, 2022
-
Gudruns Good Deed, 2022
-
Ines Svenssons memory, 2021
-
Maria Lindgrens Sömmerskehem, 2021
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Estrid Ericsons Foundation, 2020
-
Maria Lindgrens Sömmerskehem, 2020
-
Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Group Travel Grant, 2020
-
Konstfack, Group Travel Grant, 2020
Member
SKF
BUS
Lekke
KHVC
Artist Talks
Malmö Folkhögskola, Creative Game Development, 2026
Eleventh Hour Art, 2025
Textile Arts Center, 2024
Icelandic Textile Center, 2022
Konsthantverkscentrum Stockholm, 2022
Catalogues
FROG MAG 2, 2025
Liljevalchs Vårsalong Catalog, 2024
Katla #3 Comic Book, 2023
Icelandic Textile Center Residency Artist, 2022
Liljevalchs Vårsalong Catalog, 2020
Press / Publications / Mentioned in
2025
Konstfrämjandet Västmanland
Artsy / Eleventh Hour Art
Korgen
Première Vision
Textile Plus
Sydsvenskan
BRICKS Magazin
ap0cene
2024
Täcklebo Broderiakademi
AIR 15 Open Studios & Exhibition
Konstguiden
Dagens Nyheter, DN
Cprintjournal on Instagram
Textile Arts Center
2023
Konstfrämjandet Västmanland
svt Nyheter
MAGAZIN24
Arboga Kommun
Popeye
2022
Scandinavian Mind
Gustaf Westman
Cool Company
Bon
Konsthantverkcentrum
2021
Dagens Nyheter (DN)
Trendstefan blogg
Konsthantverkscentrum
Flora Wiström blogg
Närkes Alehanda (NA)
BBLAT
2020
BBLAT
BBLAT
Liljevalchs
