Jim Thorell (born 1981, Stockholm, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. His paintings present expansive visual worlds articulated through a distinct pictorial language which swing between the intimate and the monumental, asking whether we are observing vast systems from afar or peering closely into a living microcosm. Though seemingly chaotic, Thorell’s compositions are carefully created, and often feel as though they extend beyond the picture plane, offering a glimpse into something larger. Within these intricate fields of marks and shapes, multiple pictorial grounds merge, creating an openness that coexists with visual intensity.

Thorell works with gestural strokes and filament-like lines that bend, curve, and collide. These forms frequently resolve into suggestions of people, plants, and architecture, hovering between figuration and abstraction. Drawing from sources as varied as Symbolism, Surrealism, psychedelic painting, graffiti, cartoon, and manga, he conjures a mythic and speculative dimension. His paintings course with energy, while the luminous and pastel color palettes lend an unexpected tranquility, subduing this turbulence into finely balanced compositions.

Central to Thorell’s practice is an interest in images as legible systems, or forms of communication that predate and parallel written language. His oil-painted glyphs resemble scripts both ancient and invented, evoking biological networks, root systems, neural pathways, and symbolic codes. Across bodies of work and exhibition titles such as Mykorrhiza, Vinden, Tidepools, Subway Doves, and Angel Shots, Thorell explores symbiosis, transformation, and the compression of meaning, often engaging with broader ideological and ecological questions, including global systems of growth, capitalism, degrowth, escapism, and origin myths, reframing them through a painterly logic.

Thorell received his MFA from Valand Academy in Gothenburg in 2010. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Professor Daniel Richter in 2009, as well as at Kanazawa University in Japan and the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in Hanoi in 2007. He has presented solo exhibitions at Loyal (Stockholm), Setareh (Düsseldorf and Berlin), Gillmeier Rech (Berlin), Pina (Vienna), Roman Road (London), Union Pacific (London), Carl Kostyál (Stockholm), and S2 Gallery (New York). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Moderna Museet (Malmö), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), Wanås Konst (Knislinge), Vestfossen kunstlaboratorium (Vestfossen), Alma Lövs Museum (Östra Ämtervik), Bohusläns Museum (Uddevalla), and the Nordic Contemporary Art Collection, among others. His work is in the permanent collection of Magasin 3 (Stockholm) and Ståhl Collection (Norrköping).

Education

2010 MFA Valand School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden
2009 Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Prof. Daniel Richter
2007 Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam
2007 Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
2004 Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland
2003 Gothenburg School of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
2002 Wik Folk High School, Uppsala, Sweden

Solo Exhibitions

2025
Angel Shots, Setareh, Berlin, Germany

2024
Tidepools, LOYAL, Stockholm, Sweden

2023
Subway Doves, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2022
Durian in a Drainpipe, Setareh, Berlin, Germany

2021
Tropics of Beach Naps, Setareh, Düsseldorf, Germany

2020
Vinden, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2019
Mykorrhiza, Setareh, Düsseldorf, Germany
Jim Thorell, solo presentation at Market Art Fair, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2018
Illicit Electricity, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin, Germany
The Beating Heart, Tatjana Pieters, Ghent, Belgium

2017
The Grey Liberator, Pina, Vienna, Austria

2016
Methadone, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin, Germany
Seashells on the Seashore, Roman Road, London, England

2015
The Sweet Heart, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
7 Paintings, Sotheby’s S|2, New York, NY
Pathétique, Union Pacific, London, England
LUCID MEMES, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden

2012
LOKALRÄTTEN, Stockholm, Sweden
Svarta hålet/ Trädgården, Stockholm, Sweden

2010
Museo de la ciudad de Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico
Galleri Rotor, Gothenburg, Sweden

2009
White is science, black is magic, Detroit, Stockholm, Sweden

Group Exhibitions

2020
100!, The Hundredth Exhibition, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Art Cologne at the Gallery: From Minimal to Expressionism, SETAREH, Düsseldorf, Germany

2019
Within Realities, Alma Löv Museum, Östra Ämtervik, Sweden
The Great Longing – The Act of Painting, Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden

2018
The Private Collection of Water McBeer, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
Setareh Contemporary, Düsseldorf, Germany
Issues #6, Stockholm, Sweden

2017
New Elam by Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm , Sweden
Birger Jarl RMX, Plan 5, Stockholm, Sweden
Nordic Contemporary art collection, Vestfossen kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway
Water McBeer Gallery curated by Loyal at MARKET, Stockholm, Sweden
Issues #4: Alfred Boman, Zoe Barcza, Karl Norin, Emanuel Röhss and Olga Pedan, Issues, Stockholm, Sweden
A Lot A Lot, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden

2016
Painting Failures, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
Dark Mimes, ASHES/ASHES, Los Angeles, CA
Friends In Need, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden
Revue, Kustraum Am Schauplatz / Büro Weltausstellung, Vienna, Austria
Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
Swedish Art: Now! - Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

2015
PLANES, curated by Anna Frost and Annika Kuhlmann, with LOYAL at Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami, FL
Doubling, Wanås Konst, Knislinge, Sweden
This Sticky Mess Will Get Us There, Curated by Andreas Emenius & Jacob Valdemar, Nordic Contemporary, Paris, France
SPEARS, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Easter Salon, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden
YELLOW TAXI, Curated by Nick Farhi, TORRI at Lucile Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
Market Art Fair, with Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

2014
Meet your maker, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden
Nest, with Alfred Boman, Kamerade, Falsterbo, Sweden
Galleri Bon, Stockholm, Sweden
Galleri Paul Thomassen, Gothenburg, Sweden

2013
Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
GIBCA extended, Vita Rosen, Gothenburg, Sweden
Büro Weltausstellung, Vienna, Austria
Platform Stockholm, with Senoren, Stockholm, Sweden
Larrys Corner, with Senoren, Stockholm, Sweden
Temporära Konsthallen, with Senoren, Stockholm, Sweden
Parallel Vienna (represented by Büro weltausstellung), Vienna, Austria

2012
HHDM – Hinter Haus des Meeres, Vienna, Austria
Wip:Konsthall, with Senoren, Stockholm, Sweden
Enrico Palazzo, with Senoren, Gothenburg, Sweden

2011
Gallery Steinsland, Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
Svart Galla, Curated by Erik Berglin and Natalia Goldin Lundh, Lydmar Hotell Stockholm, Sweden
Market Art Fair (represented by Peter Bergman Galleri), Stockholm, Sweden
Art Copenhagen (represented by Peter Bergman Galleri), Copenhagen, Denmark
Varberg konsthall

2010
Centro Cultural Manuel Gómez Morín, Querétaro, Mexico
Galleri Box, with Senoren, Gothenburg, Sweden
Vienna Biennale, Vienna, Austria
KUNSTRAUM AM SCHAUPLATZ, Vienna, Austria
The Forgotten Bar Project, Berlin, Germany
B-galleria, Turku, Finland

2009
Detroit, Stockholm, Sweden
PERMANENS II, Linköping University Park, Linköping, Sweden
Göteborg City Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden

2008
Museo de la ciudad de Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico
Göteborg City Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden

Grants and Scholarships

IASPIS one-year scholarship, Arts Grants one-year working scholarship Stockholm’s Studio Grant 2013-14
Otto and Charlotte Mannheimer Foundation Scholarship Olle Gulin Grant

Collections

Statens Konstråd, National Arts Council Collection, Sweden
Magasin III, Stockholm, Sweden
Ståhl Collection, Norrköping, Sweden
Jönköpings kommun, Regional Collection, Jönköping, Sweden