Lars Nilsson

Botanical Stripes

November 19, 2025 – December 17, 2025

Carling Dalenson Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition with a new series of watercolor collages and sculptural candleholders by Swedish artist Lars Nilsson (b. 1966).

Following a long career in Paris, where he worked within haute couture, craft, and design for fashion houses including Chanel, Lacroix, Dior, and Ricci, Nilsson now lives and works in Rättvik, a small town in Dalarna, Sweden. Nature, traditional Swedish craft, and memories from his upbringing all inform his current work which spans hand-drawn textile patterns, collages, ceramic objects, and interior design.

Botanical Stripes stems from Nilsson’s enduring fascination with the tactile beauty of topiary gardens, particularly the historic Levens Hall in Cumbria, England. This sensibility resonates through the series of finely layered, watercolor collages, further enriched by echoes of a 17th-century Dutch still-life painting, where a lush bouquet emerges from darkness in painterly chiaroscuro. Another collage, The Pottery Floor, draws its inspiration from the stone floors of Villa San Michele on Capri and is currently being translated into a weaved tapestry at the renowned textile studio Alice Lund in Borlänge.

Alongside the new watercolors are Nilsson’s characteristic, sculptural candleholders. Hand made at the local ceramic workshop Nittsjö, they combine ceramic, hand-shaped oak, felted wool from sheep grazing near the local lake Siljan, porphyry and quartzite from Wasasten, and bronze cast on site at Morell’s Metal Foundry. In these new works, Nilsson incorporates glass for the first time, made at Bergdala glassworks in southern Sweden. This new set of sculptural pieces further expands Nilsson’s tactile exploration of stripes, translated into three-dimensional objects.

What I find interesting about English gardens is their organized chaos. It looks spontaneous, but there’s an underlying structure – a mix of skill and chance. You have to experiment, and many of these gardens have evolved over a long time. Levens Hall is fantastic; it dates back to the 17th century, it has been passed down through generations – often to women. I think that has influenced how the garden developed.

– Lars Nilsson