ArtistSwedish
Mikael Kihlman
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Mikael Kihlman was born in 1953 in Uppsala and has lived and worked in Stockholm for most of his adult life. His entry into art was not through formal academies but through practice: he enrolled at Kursverksamheten Art School in Uppsala at age 17, and it was not until 1982, working in the studio of printmaker Lennart Olausson, that he found the technique that would define his practice. Drypoint - a method of incising a metal plate directly with a sharp needle, producing lines of distinctive velvety softness - became his primary language.
What distinguishes Kihlman's work is its subject matter as much as its technique. He is, in the most literal sense, a walker of cities. Krakow's cobblestones, Montreal's downtown intersections, the streets of Belgrade and Sofia, the bridges and quaysides of Stockholm - these are the coordinates of a practice built on firsthand observation. His black-and-white drypoint prints carry the atmospheric compression of a specific moment: figures mid-stride, light filtered through urban haze, architecture reduced to its essential geometry. The prints are editions, often numbered in the hundreds, which has made his work accessible to a wide public without diluting the intimacy of the imagery.
Along with drypoint, Kihlman works in lithography, etching, and oil painting. The paintings tend toward a looser, more gestural register - still figurative, still rooted in place - while the graphic works carry the controlled precision for which he is internationally recognized. He has exhibited across Sweden, Poland, Canada, Romania, Serbia, Spain, China, Japan, and Portugal, among many other countries.
The awards that have accumulated over his career reflect serious engagement from both Swedish and international institutions. He received the Karlskoga Nobel Art Award in 2001, the Swedish Printmakers Association's Eric Wessel-Fougstedt Scholarship in 2004, and a joint honorary scholarship from the Nils G. Stenqvist Memorial Fund in 2009. In 2015 the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland - one of Central Europe's foremost art schools - awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. In 2023 he received the Axel Fridell Pin Award from the Swedish Fine Art Print Society. His works are held in the collections of the British Museum in London, the National Museum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Malmö Art Museum, Norrköping Art Museum, Borås Art Museum, Värmlands Museum in Karlstad, and the Swedish Arts Council.
On the Nordic auction market, Kihlman's work is tracked across 27 items on Auctionist, appearing through houses including Metropol, Uppsala Auktionskammare, Crafoord Auktioner in Lund, and Örebro Stadsauktioner. The auction record in the database stands at 3,200 SEK for the work "Den långa vandringen", with prints and mixed-media works selling in the 300-1,700 SEK range. His etchings, lithographs, and mixed-technique works appear regularly, typically as numbered editions signed by the artist.