Kristoffer Axén (b. 1984, Stockholm) is a visual artist based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Kristoffer Axén works across painting and photography to create images that appear discovered rather than constructed, fragments drawn from memory, atmosphere, and the edges of narrative. His works often unfold in anonymous or indeterminate settings where mood eclipses detail and color leans toward the colder spectrum, creating a sense of distance. Texture is central: knife cuts, erasures, abrasions, and mineral-spirit washes leave surfaces at once constructed and excavated, as if the image had weathered its own making.
Photography functions both as a tool and an endpoint within Axén’s practice. Digital sketches generate compositions for later canvases, while photographic prints on subtly textured papers emphasize gradients, grain, and a tactile, painterly depth. Motifs resist narrative clarity; they act less as description than as carriers of temperature and tension. Details are pared down to essentials so that atmosphere itself becomes subject, inviting projection and memory to complete what remains.
Axén’s process is methodical yet open to chance. Cuts, wipes, and erasures are not corrections but events, folding time into the image and situating it in the present. Across media, he pursues a broken realism: images that reveal their layered making while maintaining a tether to representation, however fractured. His works do not illustrate stories, but rather stage the conditions under which stories might begin.
Kristoffer Axén has exhibited internationally with solo presentations in New York (Munch Gallery), Copenhagen (Galerie Pi), and Stockholm (Gallery Domeij). Recent highlights include a solo presentation at the InCadaqués Festival (Spain, 2024), recognition in the OD Photo Prize (Jury’s Picks, 2024), and Photo London (2025), where he was shortlisted for the Nikon Emerging Photographer Award. His work has also been shown in with OHSH Projects (London), Galerie Hors Champs (Paris), Liljevalchs Konsthall (Stockholm), Aperture Gallery (New York), and Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne). He studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York, where he lived and worked for five years, and is a self-taught painter. His practice has been featured in Frieze, The Guardian, British Journal of Photography, The New York Times, and Vogue Italia.
His works are held in private and public collections including the International Center of Photography (New York), Michaelis School of Fine Arts (Cape Town), and MONA (Tasmania). He has been awarded the Tierney Fellowship in New York and was selected for reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, a traveling exhibition presented in more than a dozen countries.
Selected exhibitions
2025
Pedigree (group exhibition), OHSH at The Bottle Factory, London, England
Photo London (group exhibition), Albumen Gallery at the Somerset House, London, England
Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year (group exhibition), Nikon Gallery at the Somerset House, London, England
Meta-physi-call (ME) (group exhibition), Crum Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Liljevalchs Vårsalong (group exhibition), Liljevalchs Art Hall, Stockholm, Sweden
OD Photo Prize Shortlisted Artists (group exhibition), OD Gallery at Dandi, London, England
2024
OD Photo Prize Judges Pick (solo exhibition), Set Cadaqué / InCadaqué Festival, Cadaqué, Spain
Lost (group exhibition), Galerie Hors Champs, Paris, France
Form Award Exhibition (group exhibition), Talmart Gallery, Paris, France
2023
What the Rain Brought (duo exhibition), Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
Beltane (group exhibition), Anima Mundi, St Ives, England
BBA Gallery Artist Prize Exhibition (group exhibition), BBA Gallery at Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany
2022
Mabon (group exhibition), Anima Mundi, St Ives, England
BBA Gallery Photography Prize Exhibition (group exhibition), BBA Gallery at Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany
2021 - 2010 (selected)
2020, Beyond Ourselves (group exhibition), Anima Mundi, St Ives, England
2020, Ode to a Nightingale, (group exhibition), Anima Mundi, St Ives, England
2019, Summer Show (group exhibition), Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017, Secret Life (solo exhibition), Gallery Domeij, Stockholm, Sweden
2016, In the Presence of Absence (solo exhibition), Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2016, Autres Horizons (group exhibition), Galerie Rivière Faiveley, Paris, France
2015, YIA Art Fair (group exhibition), Galerie Riviere Faiveley at Carreau Du Temple, Paris, France
2015, Head to the Ground (duo exhibition), Gallery Domeij, Stockholm, Sweden
2015, Festival Circulations (group exhibition), The Cent Quatre, Paris, France (Group show)
2014, The Grey Room (solo exhibition), Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013, Liljevalchs Vårsalong (group exhibition), Liljevalchs Art Hall, Stockholm, Sweden
2013, Once There Was a Shock (solo exhibition), Munch Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2012, Tierney Fellowship Exhibition (group exhibition), Photovoltaic, New York, NY, USA
2011, ReGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographer Today (group exhibition), Aperture Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2010, ReGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographer Today (group exhibition), Recontres d’ Arles, Arles, France
2010, ReGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographer Today (group exhibition), Lausanne, Switzerland
2009, Juried Show Exhibition (group exhibition), The Camera Club of New York, New York, NY, USA
2009, Young Artists Emerging in America (group exhibition), Pingyao International Photo Festival, China
Awards, grants, fellowships, selections, residencies
2025, Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographers Prize (shortlisted)
2025, Fresh Eyes Talent / GUP Magazine (selected artist)
2024, OD Photo Prize (judge’s pick)
2024, FORM Awards (shortlisted)
2024, Stockholm Stad Ateljéstipendie (grant)
2023, Helge Ax:son Johnsons (grant)
2023, BBA Gallery Artist Prize (shortlisted)
2022, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee (one-year working grant)
2022, BBA Gallery Photography Prize (shortlisted)
2022, Jackson’s Painting Prize (longlisted)
2018, Art House Messen, Ålvik, Norway (residency)
2015, LensCulture Emerging Artists Talent Award (selected artist)
2015, Festival Circulation(s) (jury selection)
2011, Fellowship, The Tierney Fellowship, New York, NY, USA
2011, The British Journal of Photography’s Emerging Artist (selected artist)
2011, Zoom Magazine’s Emerging Artist (selected artist)
2011, Aperture Gallery Limited Edition Print Program (selected artist)
2010, Lacoste Elysée Competition (nomination and grant recipient )
2010, Regeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographer Today (selected artist)
2009, The International Center of Photography Director Fellowship (grant)
Collections
The Tierney Fellowship, New York, NY, USA
The School of the International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA
Tasmanian Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Michaelis School of Fine Arts, Cape Town, South Africa
Musée de E’lysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Various private collections
Selected press & publications
2025, Frieze (review - Pedigree, OHSH Projects)
2025, Liljevalch Vårsalong (catalogue)
2025, Fresh Eyes - GUP Magazine (portfolio feature)
2024, Galerie Hors-Champs (exhibition brochure)
2023, Gente di Fotografia (interview & feature)
2020, Zoom Magazine (interview & feature)
2015, New York Times - (Festival Circulations(s) feature - image reproduced)
2015, Watch Magazine (interview & feature)
2011, British Journal of Photography (emerging photographer selection & feature)
2010, Vogue Italia (reGeneration2 feature, image reproduced)
2010, reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographer Today - Aperture/Thames & Hudson (book)
Education
2008-2009, General Studies in Photography, The International Center of Photograph, New York, USA