Lennart Grebelius

THEN / NOW Grebelius creates conceptually-based work that focuses on quantifiable facts in hard-to-believe numbers. Because of their enormity and relevance to sociopolitically charged issues and our understanding of mathematical structures that form the essence of life. He is the recipient of many web awards for his online pieces. In addition, he frequently exhibits thematic installations in museums across Sweden, including the Natural History Museum of Gothenburg, the Rydal Museum, the Borås Artmuseum, and the Umedalen Skuptur/Sandström Andersson, Umeå.

Grebelius invited viewers to ponder the odds of “you becoming you” given the enormous sperm-to-egg ratio of about 300 million-plus spermatozoa to an egg for his WHO AM I show. His large-screen TV that played a video of these tail chasers in action, his sperm-patterned wallpaper covering the gallery walls, and his set of 300 books representing the content of one ejaculation conveyed the frenzy of reproductive act.

For his FINAL MEAL show, Grebelius questioned the moral legitimacy of capital punishment given the possibility of how innocent prisoners may be executed in a rush to serve justice in states like Texas, who think that does not matter. Besides exploring the justification of execution of John Michael Lamb in a book about his life and death, the leading book contains over 300 meals eaten by the condemned on their last day of life by Texas in only one year. 

For his TWENTY BILLION YEARS show, Grebelius impressed viewers over time from the birth of the universe 13.8 billion ago to 20 billion years in the future. For the duration of this exhibit, 2,000 books (each book contains 500 pages, each page containing 20,000 dots, each dot equals one years) were displayed on the gallery’s wall, translating this measurement into visibly tangible form.