Everything you don´t have to do
+ the release of EKTA´s new fanzine Based on a true story.

Galleri Thomassen is proud to present Everything you don´t have to do, Daniel Götesson EKTA´s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

EKTA´s work plays against the agreed-upon convention of what is reasonable and generally accepted, expressed through a visual world with a state of mind turned upside down, offering more mood than tangible narrative.

In Everything you don´t have to do, EKTA presents new drawings and works on paper in different sizes, together with an installation. Here he continues playing with figuration and abstraction taking things apart and putting them back together, molding abstract shapes with figurative depictions.

The compositions in the more claustrophobic pieces operate like an infinity mirror to deflect the game of interpretation versus representation back onto itself. An installation of paintings on oilcloths further calls into question the flat and the spatial object.

All works in the show bear traces of EKTA´s characteristic way of working where they and their maker submits to the process, and the medium, giving them an immediate quality of goofiness, stripped of conceptual contrivance. They expand, appearing at once monumental yet charmingly insecure. As the show´s title hints, the common message being the opposite. It still remains unclear what the objective here is, or if there is one at all. An attitude at the core of EKTA´s work.

Daniel Götesson EKTA (b. 1978 in Falkenberg) lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden. He holds a BA in Illustration from the London College of Communication, London, UK. His works have been exhibited extensively in Sweden and Europe and have been published in countless art-books and magazines such as The New York Times and Juxtapoz Magazine. EKTA´s murals and public works can be found in Italy, France, Croatia, Poland, and England. Amongst other projects, he has recently worked on several public art commissions of varying scale for various municipalities in Sweden as well as collaborated with The Gothenburg International Film Festival, Converse and Marni. Ekta works across numerous mediums, encompassing drawing, collage, painting, sculpture, textiles, as well as animation, performance, installation, and music.

Recent solo exhibitions include What it do, Katrineholm Konsthall (2019), Interrupting Myself, Mini Galerie, Amsterdam, NL (2018), WASHWASH, Industrigatan 12, Stockholm (2018), A Feeling Itself, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg (2018), I Can´t Help You, Tegn Artspace, Jyderup, DK (2018), NON + FIGURATION, Ronneby Konsthall (2017). Recent group exhibitions include RARO, Delimbo Gallery, Madrid, ES (2019), Enter Art Fair, Mini Galerie, Copenhagen, DK (2019), Graffuturism, Mirus Gallery, Denver, USA (2019), FLAT EARTH TRAP, Slika Gallery, Lyon, FR (2019), Wall Between, SC Gallery, Bilbao, ES (2019), 18-XCI, Alice Gallery, Brussels, BE (2018), EDDYSROOM @ gallerithomassen, Galleri Thomassen (2018). His work is represented in both private and public collections.