EMANUEL RÖHSS

“For me, the presence and freedom in rock climbing is related to the experiences of artistic work. As an artist, I myself decide what the work is about, and it is my responsibility to take care of it. The better I get at what I do, the more independent I can feel. But neither in the mountains nor in art do I have the last word.”

This year’s art scholar, Emanuel Röhss, was born in Gothenburg but has lived and been based in Los Angeles since 2014. After attending KV Konstskola art school in Gothenburg, he moved to Ireland in 2008 to continue his art education at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 2011. He returned to Gothenburg to study for a year at Valand Art Academy, from where he obtained a second bachelor’s degree. After his time in Dublin, Emanuel Röhss continued his studies in London, at the Royal College of Art, where he took his master’s degree in 2013. Since then, and especially after moving to Los Angeles seven years ago, he has expanded his creativity and widened his artistic practice. Today he works with a combination of media where text, painting, sculpture, film, architectural elements and scenographic installations interact.

Motivation:
Emanuel Röhss explores the ability of the space to create fiction by unifying architecture, ornaments and visual culture. The creative process takes place in the meeting between sculpture, installation and moving images, but materials and medium are allowed to change depending on the specific conditions of the site. Decorative elements are detached from buildings or cinematic sequences; reborn as scenography and rebuilt into new worlds. With ambiguous installations, the viewer’s experience of the surroundings changes and a borderland is established, with room for cultural memories and subconscious layers.

For an artistry that transforms space, stretches the boundaries of perception, and expands artistic expression, Emanuel Röhss is awarded a 2021 scholarship from the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.