About
CFHILL presents Father Figures, an exhibition by Anders Krisár. The exhibition centers on a series of sculptures in polished steel and bronze depicting a young boy in three stages of a dive: standing at the edge of the diving platform, leaning forward with his gaze directed toward the water; suspended mid-air in a pike position; and seated at the pool’s edge in quiet reflection. High Diver (1–3), 2022–26, forms a multi-layered body of work exploring the narcissistic gaze, the discipline of mastery, and the existential weight of the decisive moment.
The series takes as its point of departure a historical photograph depicting Krisár’s father as a young diver in Budapest in the late 1950s. Captured mid-jump, the father’s body appears to hover in the air, frozen in a moment of complete control. By translating this archival image into sculpture, Krisár returns to a past that precedes his own existence, offering a glimpse of what he has inherited from his father. The figure becomes not only a biographical echo, but also a reflection on the traits, ambitions, and decisions that have shaped, and continue to shape, the artist’s life and practice.
These themes are further developed in Room for Farewell (2024), a series of intimate drawings created while the artist sat beside his father in a farewell room at Södersjukhuset hospital. In approximately sixty drawings, thirty-six of which are included in the exhibition, Krisár renders his deceased father in a rapid, impressionistic style that recalls Monet’s haystacks as well as the father’s own painterly language, marked by expressionistic cross-hatching. An example of the father’s painting from 2020 is also included.
Together, these works reflect an ongoing engagement with memory, the fleeting nature of time, and the relationship between sculpture, drawing, and remembrance. Each drawing evokes the presence of a loved one no longer living. Each dive and return to the surface mirrors a desire to preserve that memory, and each time, a new farewell.
Krisár lives and works in Stockholm. He has recently exhibited at Johyun Gallery, Busan; Gallery2, Seoul; Dom Museum, Vienna; and Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky.
