Contact
contact@kristofferaxen.com
Stockholm, Sweden

Represented by
Open Doors Gallery
London, UK

Kristoffer Axén (b. 1984, Stockholm) is a visual artist based in Stockholm, working in painting and photography. His images appear discovered rather than constructed: fragments of memory, atmosphere, and the edges of narrative, set in anonymous or indeterminate places where mood outweighs detail and the palette leans cold.

In the paintings, texture is central. Knife cuts, erasures, abrasions, and mineral-spirit washes leave the surfaces both constructed and excavated, as if the image had weathered its own making. His process is methodical yet open to chance: these marks are not corrections but events that fold time into the image.

The photographs inhabit the same world as the paintings, working through gradients, grain, and tone. They draw on photographs of discarded canvases and of textures found in nature, so that surface and wear are part of the image itself. Prints on subtly textured papers add a tactile, painterly depth.

Across both media he pursues a broken realism: images that reveal their layered making yet stay tethered to representation. They do not illustrate stories; they stage the conditions under which stories might begin.

Axén 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 work is held in the collections of the International Center of Photography, the Michaelis School of Fine Arts, and MONA.

Solo and duo exhibitions
2025 – Introducing Kristoffer Axén, online solo exhibition, Open Doors Gallery / Artsy
2024 – OD Photo Prize Judge’s Pick solo exhibition, Set Cadaqué / InCadaqué Festival, Cadaqués, Spain
2023 – What the Rain Brought, Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2018 – Untitled, Milkbar Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden (with Kegen Lorentzon)
2017 – Secret Life, Gallery Domeij, Stockholm, Sweden
2016 – In the Presence of Absence, Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2015 – Head to the Ground, Gallery Domeij, Stockholm, Sweden (with Sara Möller)
2014 – Selected Photographs, Nordic Light, Stockholm, Sweden (catalogue)
2014 – The Grey Room, Galerie Pi, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013 – Once There Was a Shock, Munch Gallery, New York, USA

Selected group exhibitions
2026 – Rencontres de la Photographie Marrakech, 6th Edition, finalist presentation, Marrakech, Morocco
2026 – Festival OFF Arles, Arles, France
2026 – Neonate, Embryo Platform / PhMuseum, Greece
2025 – Pedigree, OHSH at The Bottle Factory, London, UK
2025 – Photo London, Albumen Gallery at Somerset House, London, UK
2025 – Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year, Nikon Gallery at Somerset House, London, UK
2025 – Meta-physi-call (ME), Crum Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
2025 – Liljevalchs Vårsalong, Liljevalchs, Stockholm, Sweden (also 2013)
2024 – Lost, Galerie Hors-Champs, Paris, France
2024 – FORM Award Exhibition, Talmart Gallery, Paris, France
2022–2023 – BBA Gallery Photography Prize and Artist Prize exhibitions, Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany
2020–2022 – Anima Mundi, St Ives, UK (Ode to a Nightingale, Beyond Ourselves, Mabon)
2013–2020 – Galerie Pi, Copenhagen: group shows and art fairs (Copenhagen Art Fair, Art Herning, PIX)
2016 – Anonymous (Urban Life in Contemporary Photography), Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016 – Autres Horizons, Galerie Rivière Faiveley, Paris, France
2015 – YIA Art Fair, Galerie Rivière Faiveley / Le Carreau du Temple, Paris, France
2015 – Festival Circulation(s), The Cent Quatre, Paris, France (catalogue), with touring slideshows in Braga, Belfast, Lodz, and Reggio Emilia
2015 – LensCulture Emerging Talents, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, USA
2012 – Tierney Fellowship Exhibition, Photoville, New York, USA
2010–2014 – reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, traveling exhibition, including Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Rencontres d’Arles; Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan; Aperture Gallery, New York; Rosphoto, St. Petersburg; Landskrona Museum, Sweden
2010 – Lacoste Elysée Exhibition, Art Basel Miami and Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan (catalogue)
2010 – New Visionaries, New York Photo Festival, Tobacco Warehouse, New York, USA
2009 – Young Artists Emerging in America: Place, Body, Technology, Pingyao International Photo Festival, China (catalogue)

Awards, grants, fellowships
2025 – Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award, shortlisted
2025 – Fresh Eyes Talent / GUP, selected artist
2024 – OD Photo Prize, Judge’s Pick
2024 – FORM Awards, shortlisted
2024 – Stockholms stads ateljé- och studiostöd för konstnärer
2023 – Helge Ax:son Johnsons Artist Grant
2023 – BBA Gallery Artist Prize, shortlisted
2022 – Swedish Arts Grants Committee, one-year working grant
2022 – BBA Gallery Photography Prize, shortlisted
2022 – Jackson’s Painting Prize, longlisted
2015 – LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, selected
2015 – Festival Circulation(s), Jury Selection, Paris
2011 – The Tierney Fellowship, New York (grant and exhibition)
2011 – Emerging Artist, The British Journal of Photography and Zoom Magazine
2011 – First Place, Win Initiative’s Ten Best at Ten
2011 – Selected for the Limited Edition Print Program, Aperture Gallery, New York
2010 – Lacoste Elysée Prize, nomination and grant recipient, Lausanne
2010 – reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, selected artist (traveling exhibition and catalogue)
2009 – International Center of Photography Director Fellowship (scholarship), New York

Residency
2018 – Art House Messen, Ålvik, Norway

Selected press
2026 – Post Human, Siilk Gallery / Stuck Magazine
2026 – The Photographic Journal, Placebo, Essay 620
2026 – Lucida Photo Magazine, artist interview / portfolio feature
2025 – The Guardian, Photo London / Nikon coverage
2025 – Frieze, review mention
2025 – Fresh Eyes, GUP
2023 – Gente di Fotografia, Italy
2021 – Fisheye Magazine, “Peindre par la lumière” (Julien Hory)
2019 – Plain Magazine, “Beyond Reality and Fiction” (Kala Barba-Court)
2015 – International New York Times, “Imagery of Young Artists”
2015 – Le Monde, “Circulation(s): place à la jeune photographie européenne”
2014 – Politiken, (Trine Ross)
2011 – The British Journal of Photography, “Emerging Talents: Global Ambitions” (Simon Bainbridge), Issue 7790
2011 – Aperture Magazine, “Announcing the 2011 Tierney Fellows,” Issue 205
2010 – Vogue Italia, “I Fotografi del Domani” (Maria Grazia Meda), Issue 717
2010 – Art Review, “Lacoste Elysée Prize 2010,” Issue 46

Collections
The International Center of Photography, New York; Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania; Michaelis School of Fine Arts, Cape Town; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; The Tierney Fellowship, New York; and private collections.

Education
2008–2009 – Advanced Certificate, General Studies in Photography, International Center of Photography, New York, USA