Karolina Willebrand Vinnberg invites you to the most famous coffee break in children's literature. The years have passed. Sometimes the artist herself sits at the table, with a grown-up Pippi haircut, and meets the gaze of the visitor who wants to sit down opposite her.
A pastiche of performance queen Marina Abramovic's séances, notes Joanna Sandell Wright - but with pill charts and banknotes strewn under the coffee table.
The absurd takes its place in our time, says the art gallery director, pointing to Tedde Twetman's neon sign "Drug Food", confusingly similar to increasingly seldom-used ATMs.
Next to it, the same artist has a bulletproof vest with a large Gucci logo - together with "The Drug Eater", a story about contemporary easily accessible drugs and the gang crime that lies behind them.
“Pinch forward”
Every fifth exhibitor at the 2026 Spring Salon is under 30 years old and half of the 255 artists have not yet turned 40, making it an unusually young and professional salon. A full 82 percent of those accepted have some form of artistic education, says Joanna Sandell Wright, who continues to want to take in the world at Liljevalchs in Stockholm.
But you can't squeeze it in if it doesn't exist. I think the younger artists - if they don't have family from abroad - might have trained abroad. They have more experience of the world, she says.
Swedish-American Michele Pred's ceiling lamp is made from empty cartridges and fake nails instead of glass prisms.
Tindra Englund, a stonemason from Öland, has visited Ramallah and made a fountain with blood-colored water and the encouraging title: "Don't forget to wash your hands."
"When she carves this piece, she sees how Sweden's trade with Israel has only increased. She will invite our Prime Minister to come here," says Joanna Sandell Wright.
“Tickling in the stomach”
With Southern Sami Carola Grahn on the jury, Vårsalongen has also encouraged artists from all over Sápmi to participate. At least five exhibitors have made works with a Sami theme and Joanna Sandell Wright emphasizes that they are selected solely on artistic merit. Johanna Darehed's kite, in braided birch bark and with Sami ribbons, flies high under the ceiling.
"I want to compete with Gröna Lund but on artistic terms. It should tickle the stomach even at Liljevalchs," says Joanna Sandell Wright.
348 works by 255 artists have been selected from a total of 3394 applications. This year's salon features an unusually large amount of figurative painting.
The jury included the Southern Sami artist Carola Grahn from Jokkmokk, the multidisciplinary artist and frontman of the band Boko Yout, Paul Adamah, the Syrian curator Abir Boukhari who lives and works in Sweden, and Joanna Sandell Wright, director of the art gallery.
On display at Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm from 13 February to 3 May.
