In his abstract paintings, Christoffer Mahlknecht examines material processes. By heating oil paints with beeswax, he creates crayons that give the paint a multilayered structure. The crayons are heated by friction, flowing out over folds and cavities before solidifying in a crust. In the series Endogen / Exogen, his paintings are a constant dialogue between what is and what was. A pendulum movement in time and space.
Mahlknecht approaches painting in an open process of retakes and deferrals; traces and fragments of light and shadow are applied, scraped and buried, only to be resurrected with new power, at a new time, through cracks and holes in what was.
Christoffer Mahlknecht was born 1987 in Stockholm and graduated from the Umeå School of Fine Arts in 2022. Today he lives and works in Stockholm.