ArtistSwedish
Per-Olof Olsson
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Per-Olof Olsson was born in 1949 in Landskrona in southern Sweden and has spent much of his life in the Helsingborg area of Skane. He began painting in 1976 without any formal art training, and he has remained committed to that self-taught path throughout his career - by his own account, formal schooling would disqualify an artist from the naive tradition he identifies with. Alongside his painting, he worked for many years as a teacher for children with disabilities, a profession that shaped his humanistic view of the world and fed directly into the warmth that characterises his imagery.
Olsson works primarily in oil, gouache and colour lithography. His subjects are rooted in the social fabric of Swedish small-town life: bakeries, cafes, church coffee gatherings, conductors, crayfish parties and seasonal celebrations. The scenes are densely populated with cheerful figures, rendered with clear warm colours and a compositional logic that is entirely his own. Touches of surrealism occasionally appear - a figure slightly too large for the space, a perspective gently tilted - but the overall mood is consistently affectionate and good-humoured.
His exhibition record extends across Sweden and into Europe. His first solo show was held at Galleri Kopparmollan in Helsingborg in 1982. He subsequently exhibited in the United States (Pennsylvania and New York, 1984), Germany, and through the Groupe International des Primitifs Modernes Dits Naifs, in several locations in France. He participated repeatedly in group exhibitions at Galeria Eboli in Madrid - including his eighth appearance there in 2012 - and took part in the International d'Art Naif exhibition at Landskrona Konsthall in 2014. He is represented by GINA Gallery, which specialises exclusively in international naive art. In 2024 he was awarded the Helsingborgsmedaljen, the city of Helsingborg's highest civic honour, in recognition of his contribution to local cultural life.
His work is held in the permanent collections of Malmö Museum, Landskrona Museum and Helsingborg Museum, and in collections of several Swedish municipalities, county councils and companies. The Helsingborg connection runs especially deep - lithographs such as 'The Artist and His Helsingborg' document a long and affectionate engagement with the city where he has based his studio, Atelj Naiv, for decades.
On the Swedish auction market his prints circulate regularly through regional houses in Skane. The Auctionist platform currently holds 15 items linked to his name, traded primarily through Hoganas Auktionsverk, Crafoord Auktioner Lund and Garpenhus Auktioner. Signed colour lithographs - including recurring editions of 'Cafe Lackerbiten' and 'Smasradsromantik' - appear at prices typically between 300 and 1,300 SEK, reflecting the accessible character of an edition-based graphic practice. Oil paintings from his hand are less common at auction and have historically attracted somewhat stronger interest.