B. 1978 (Malmö, Sweden)
Lives and works in Mallow, Ireland
Contact: eatthestars@gmail.com
Maria Jönsson Kent is a Swedish artist educated at Malmö Art Academy, Sweden and with an MFA in studio art from University of Illinois at Chicago.
Her work has been exhibited at Molekyl Gallery, Malmö; New Capital, Chicago; Loop, Barcelona; Galleri Magnus Åklundh, Malmö; Hannofer Kunstverein, Germany; Sidcot Art Center, UK.
She is working on the translation of the Swedish novel “The Genious- The Criminal Martin Ekenberg: Tales of the Chief Inspector” (1919) and have published two monograph essays.
She is a recipient of an Agility Award from the Arts Council in Ireland, a Helge Ax:on Johnson’s Foundation Production Grant and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Individual Artist Grant.
Her intermediate sculpture class at DOVA University of Chicago was called Forms of Constraints and included a visit to a correctional facility. She also taught sculpture at UIC during graduate school.
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My practice involves writing, archival research, drawing and sculptural works in a variety of materials. For a year before we came to Mallow, we lived in Maastricht in The Netherlands. There was a beautiful community garden on a waste ground close to our apartment. When it was destroyed, dismantled to create a carpark; I rescued a birdhouse. Only the front remains and I love it for its simple representation of home. The birdhouse and a suitcase left us by my great grandmother, where she kept all the postcards she ever received has inspired a variety of works in different mediums; all loosely part of a project called ‘the house mouse’. Themes I am interested in are those of belonging, collecting and micro-histories. October 2021 was the first time the birdhouses were shown, a site specific installation at Mallow Art Festival.
