Maja Kristin Nylander (1979) is a visual artist and photographer based in Göteborg, Sweden. She works with series of images that are based on personal experiences of presence and absence. They are to be seen as an autobiographical formative work where Nylander explores the esthetics of missing and loss. Through fragmentary fictions Nylander examines the relations between the mythological and the secular, between collective and private memory.
Her images are carefully staged and arranged. Memories, symbols and bodies are working together in associative sceneries where inner and outer worlds are crossed. Recurrent motives are poetic landscapes with filmic still figures that seem to be waiting for someone or something, figures that seek or avoid the observer’s gaze, in an interaction between photographer, model and observer. Caring and carrying are central themes in Nylander’s work.
Nylander has been awarded several grants and exhibits continuously in art galleries and museums.
She also works with portraits in exhibitions, books and magazines, often concerning minorities. Maja Kristin is the photographer behind the awarded We Are Romas and The Silent Inheritage. She is the picture editor of film magazine FLM and is a recurrent contributor in several newspapers and magazines.
Education
1999 – 2002 BA Photography, Napier University, Edinburgh
2001 Photographic Art, Newport School of Art, Media & Design, University of Wales
2013 The art of Gum bichromate, Konsthögskolan Valand, Göteborg
Grants and Awards
2021 Kavallastipendiet, Svenska Fotografers Förbund
2021 Ettårigt arbetsstipendium, Konstnäsrsnämnden
2019 Nord Photography Artist in residence programe grant, Trondheim Norway
2018 Arthur Lundqvist och Maria Wines Stiftelse Artist in residence grant
2017 Swedish Journalist Association grant
2017 Adlerbertska Arts and culture grant
2016 1-year working grant, Swedish Authors´ Fund
2016 The city of Gothenburgs Arts and culture grant
2015 Helge Ax Johnssons Arts and culture grant
2014 Pennskaftspriset
2014 Swedish Association of Professional Photographers travel grant
2014 1-year working grant, Swedish Authors´ Fund
2014 Swedish Journalist Association grant
2013 Vi är romer – The best museum exhibition of the year 2013
2013 Längmanska Fund of Culture, arts grant
2013 Västra Götaland county travel grant
2007 Anrells minnesfond Arts and culture grant
2005 The city of Västerås Arts and culture grant
2003 Västmanland county Arts and culture grant
1999 Grafiskt Utbildningscenters studying grant