Peter Blum Gallery will present ‘Ergosphere,’ a solo exhibition of new paintings by Stockholm-based artist Paul Fägerskiöld, from September 9 through October 31, 2026. The exhibition will occupy the gallery’s space at 176 Grand Street in New York, with an artist reception scheduled for September 9 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The presentation marks Fägerskiöld’s fourth solo exhibition with Peter Blum Gallery. Its title refers to the ergosphere, the region surrounding a rotating black hole where space-time is dragged so extensively that physical stillness becomes impossible. The gallery’s half-spiral architecture is used as part of the exhibition’s structure, turning its sequence of rooms into what the gallery describes as a gravitational orbit.
‘Ergosphere’ brings together two bodies of work. One develops the artist’s earlier ‘Starry Night’ paintings, shifting their emphasis from time toward space. These works depict cosmic regions as seen from the solar system rather than from Earth, with invisible gravitational sources positioned at their centers. Their compositions omit the horizon, leaving areas of raw linen visible at the top and bottom of the frame.
The exhibition begins with a small blue painting representing the nearest black hole seen from New York City. The work functions as an earthly point of reference before the paintings move away from conventional systems of orientation, including gravity, natural scale and the horizon line. In related works, Fägerskiöld uses brighter, unnaturalistic colors and builds surfaces through successive layers of acrylic and oil. The canvases are rotated during the process so that opposing brushstrokes accumulate across the surface before the final orientation is established.
A second group of paintings is frameless and made on tinted linen. Their glossy, transparent circular motifs are created through repeated priming layers, each containing a small amount of transparent paint, while the weave of the linen remains visible. The imagery centers on the circle, sphere and tree. Spheres and circles appear through intersecting lines that make them hover between flat forms and volumes; the tree motif connects questions of time and transformation with astronomical diagrams of planetary paths and patterns of leaf growth.
The gallery’s description places the two bodies of work in relation to the holographic principle, a cosmological theory proposing that information contained in a three-dimensional system can be encoded on its two-dimensional boundary. Fägerskiöld connects that concept to painting’s own material condition: a flat surface capable of suggesting an expansive depth. The works also continue his investigation of scale and dimensional movement, using painting to test how cosmic structures might be translated onto a two-dimensional plane.
Born in Stockholm in 1982, Fägerskiöld lives and works in the Swedish capital. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. His solo museum exhibitions include presentations at Kunstmuseum Thun, Borås Art Museum, Jönköping County Museum, Moderna Museet Malmö and Bonniers Konsthall. ‘Ergosphere’ will remain on view at Peter Blum Gallery through October 31, 2026.
