HAMPUS JAN-MICHAEL 

Artist Statement

To dare to see. To dare to pause. To dare to zoom in on the nerve of color. On the human moment. To dare to zoom out toward history, toward our shared images of the world.

Hampus’s artistic practice is grounded in a longing to see: to see something new, to remain within the moment, and to dare to let it change something within him. In his practice, he moves between painting, collage, drawing, and text, exploring the relationship between emotion and form, between the intimate and the universal. For Hampus, this is not solely about the visual, but also about daring to approach what is felt. Color has become the central component of his visual language. His sensitivity to detail shaped by his hearing impairment and his reliance on lip-reading,  is translated into how he perceives and uses color in his artistic work.

Over the years, Hampus has developed a method that shifts between zooming in and zooming out: moving close to the personal, the memory, the moment, and then viewing it from a distance, within a larger context. This working method is evident in his recent works, where the figurative meets the emotional, and where color carries traces of both observation and inner experience. He has previously engaged deeply with artists such as Eugène Jansson, whose practice has influenced his own way of seeing. This dialogue between historical and contemporary practices is central to his artistic work.

​​

In his art, Hampus therefore investigates how seeing can be more than merely sight: a way of experiencing the world through color, sound, movement, and emotion. As a person with a hearing impairment, he has learned that perception is neither singular nor static, but something one actively participates in. To dare to see, for him, is to allow this experience to shape the work and to embrace incompleteness as a strength.

Ultimately, it is through color, form, text, and visual expression that Hampus tells his stories, stories of loss, love, and longing, but also of hope, humor, and the possibility of creating something new from what already exists. Each color carries its own narrative, but it is in their meeting that the whole emerges. Pain becomes a color, relationships become an image, and aesthetics become the rhythm that binds everything together. By working from his own lived experience, visibility becomes an act of resistance.