Vid stranden - tre kanoter (At the beach - three canoes)

Emma Jönsson’s textiles are part of a tradition in which modern and contemporary Swedish female artists manifest the expressive power found in the ancient art of embroidery. Among her more famous predecessors in the field is Anna Casparsson (1861–1961) who, in her embroidery, developed an unconventional technique incorporating beads, lace and sequins. Casparsson’s work, like Hjorten/The Deer (1922, embroidered tapestry with silver thread, sequins and glass pieces, 61 x 106 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), was inspired by music, Bible stories and folk stories, as well as paintings and drawings by Ernst Josephson (1851–1906, Swedish painter and poet who specialised in portraits, genre scenes and folklore).

Another, more contemporary, predecessor worth mentioning in this context is Britta Marakatt-Labba (born 1951, Swedish Sámi textile artist, painter, graphic artist, and a member of the Mazé Group), whose epic 23.5 m long embroidery Historjá (2003-2007, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway) met with great acclaim at documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, in 2017 and was also named as one of the greatest works of art of the century by ArtNews in 2025.

Even though Jönsson, like Casparsson, finds inspiration in folk stories, her art (where animals and figures, trees and flowers are recurring elements), rather like Marakatt-Labba’s, seeks to comment on contemporary issues.

Vid stranden - tre kanoter (At the beach - three canoes) and The Battle, executed with mouliné thread (a multi-ply cotton embroidery thread with a wide range of colour shades) on velvet, are two very good examples of Jönsson’s powerful art where needle and thread have been put to use in order to tell stories about the contemporary tragedies that surround us human beings.

When Jönsson was awarded the 2013 Cultural Stipend from Sörmland County Council in Sweden, the motivation read as follows:

Emma Jönsson uses embroidery, painting and appliqué as means of expression to create her images. Each image is like a world filled with signs, symbols, animals and people, where memories, fairy tales and dreams are intertwined with contemporary everyday stories. There is humour and playfulness, but at the same time a deep seriousness. Emma Jönsson’s images do not remain on the surface; there is depth for those who dare to step inside.

The motivation summarises Jönsson’s artistic expression very well. One could add, however, that many of Jönsson’s recent works, where she engages in social commentary with every stitch, reflect the artist’s sense of despair brought on by the contemporary refugee crisis in the world.

Vid stranden - tre kanoter and The Battle were both acquired from Saskia Neuman Gallery in Stockholm, where The Battle was included in the celebrated 2023 solo exhibition Väntan (The Wait). In his review of the exhibition (‘Vakendrömmar och mindfulness på Stockholms gallerier’, Dagens Nyheter, 21 January 2023), art critic Magnus Bons wrote:

Textile art is given new impetus by Emma Jönsson’s expressive embroideries at the Saskia Neuman gallery. ‘Väntan’ is the name of her debut exhibition at a Stockholm gallery and demonstrates the art world’s growing interest in time-consuming, meditative craftsmanship. Against a backdrop of midnight black or wine-red velvet, Jönsson’s personally coloured scenes unfold, telling stories of life’s small joys and greater losses.

When The Battle was exhibited at Saskia Neuman Gallery (Emma JönssonVäntan—Waiting, January 12 - February 11, 2023), the press release also touched upon the underlying themes in Jönsson’s work:

In a meeting between traditional craft and contemporary expression artist Emma Jönsson’s embroidery can be perceived as elusive, enchanting even. At a more measured gaze the images the artist depicts are of great gravitas, as she engages in social commentary with every stitch. Enormously affected by the recent migrant crises in Europe, the artist took to her work as a tool in which to manage her feelings of hopelessness and despair. Emma confronted the rising death toll in relation to the millions of people fleeing the war in Syria. As the migrants and asylum seekers made their way to Europe and started arriving in Sweden, Emma’s mind and hand meandered towards imagery, material and color scale that reflected the feelings evoked by the sheer magnitude of distress and misery the people fleeing had to endure. She has created images with discrete annotations to a non-descript afterlife that many of the refugees and migrants were met with due to the hazardous conditions in which they fled. Waiting combines delicate imagery of harrowing images that are imprinted into our collective memory, with more abstract embroidery. Emma Jönsson creates a tableau, akin to a renaissance painting, each color of string embodies a new brush stroke of color. These abstract amalgamations of color and form are almost small composites of the unknown, and as a viewer we are encouraged to interact with these splashes of consciousness, through color, the suggestion of texture and a sense of bewilderment.

Signed (lower left corner): ‘ej’.

Provenance

Saskia Neuman Gallery, Stockholm.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired from the above).