Museum of the Unnoticed

Sofie Josefsson
The Museum of the Unnoticed

Sofie Josefsson (b.1972) is a Swedish artist, born in Gothenburg and based in Malmö. She holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy (2002). Josefsson's paintings present a visual language that navigates between abstraction and figuration. Her work is characterized by a tactile immediacy and emotional depth, where material and gesture converge to evoke both vulnerability and resilience. This marks Josefsson’s first solo exhibition at Saskia Neuman Gallery.

Known for her engagement with materiality and the tension between organic and constructed nuances within the realm of painting, Sofie Josefsson’s work spans sculpture, installation, collage and architecture; however, solely explored through the medium of painting. Investigating themes of memory and transformation, the artists unique approach within her practice allows for an almost cognitive layering, inviting rediscovery with every glance at her work.

Josefsson builds a quiet, poetic world around what is, or what she perceives as overlooked. Her artistic practice might be described as incorporating elements of 'museum of the unnoticed' — the title of her exhibition at Saskia Neuman Gallery. The artist engages in a careful archiving of small, transient moments, almost neglected materials and traces of human presence that might otherwise go unrecorded. Josefsson collects and recontextualizes fragments from everyday life; often abstract at first, imbuing them with attention and meaning through processes of transformation and display.

Rather than grand gestures or monumental forms, her work gravitates toward the fragile and the ephemeral — frayed threads, worn surfaces, found objects, and materials with histories are permanently etched into them. The pedestal, the sculpture which essentially bears witness and carries historical artifacts, artwork and idols have become her primal focus in her recent body of work. Enriching these environments with painterly freedom, abstract shapes, colors, sketch like, almost cartoon-esque features adorn a few of the paintings, creating environments of fantasy for other-worldly endeavors. These fragments, once discarded or unseen, become protagonists in her installations on canvas, inviting viewers to pause and reconsider their relationship to the unnoticed textures of daily life. The work feels both archival and deeply personal, as if they are records not of facts, but of sensations the artist has encountered.

Central to Josefsson’s vision is a radical take on time. Her practice involves durational acts that resist the speed of contemporary consumption. In this way, her museum is not just a metaphor, but a living method: a process of gathering, tending, and preserving without fetishizing, all translated through each brush stroke. Another recurring theme in Josefsson's work is the idea of impermanence. Objects appear to be in a state of becoming or decay, inviting viewers to reflect on cycles of life, loss, and renewal. She also plays with scale and tactility, often creating immersive environments on the canvas that feel intimate and quietly subversive. Through a practice that is both grounded and ethereal, resulting in an ever-present sensitivity in her work.

This sensitivity also extends to space. Her paintings often respond to the architecture around them — creeping along floorboards, clinging to walls, or nestling into corners — as though the works are growing into the cracks of the institutional setting, quietly claiming their own authority. Sofie Josefsson's Museum of the Unnoticed doesn’t seek to monumentalize the marginal; instead, it honors it with intimacy. In a time of excess and spectacle, her work offers an alternative rhythm: one of quiet observation, subtle transformation, and enduring presence.