Curated by Lauren Johnson

We’re Everlasting Energy

Top notes: dusty marble, ego, hourglass sand

Heart notes: burning flowers, crypt, 3 cherries in a row

Base notes: lunar light, scream, desert sage

♾️ ♾️ ♾️

Head bent kneeling before broken stones, broken times, a ruin.

Veneration or vengeance? Hard to choose a strand and pull.

We’ve all been first and last, it’s a coin toss. Not fate but chance.

Patterns unravel out here. It’s a ruin for two—no winner, no loser, just the lone and level sands.

Skulls roll through mirages like tumbleweeds, bound to eternal turning.

Death is what gives life its nectar, lean in. We’re everlasting energy.

LUCIE GOTTLIEB (b. 1991, Paris, France) lives and works in Stockholm. Gottlieb holds a MA in Curating including Art, Management and Law from Stockholm University. Her projects and work have been presented at ArtLab Gnesta (Gnesta, Sweden), Konsthall C (Farsta, Sweden), Kalmar Konstmuseum (Kalmar, Sweden), Hybrida (Molkom, Sweden), Fylkingen (Stockholm) and Kruger (Muskö, Sweden) among others. She is the co-founder of Galleri Nef in Stockholm and one of the initiators of the long-term artistic study program Mourning School.

In So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way, a gray wolf is suspended in a sea of blue glass, iridescent strips twine in the background. This wolf is the Beast of Gévaudan, a mysterious creature that terrorized southern France in the 18th century. The villagers of Gévaudan were living in dire conditions, they faced harsh weather, poverty, and the constant threat of death by wolf. As the body count rose, panic spread. Reports of the creature’s size and ferocity varied, but they all shared a common theme: the beast was not just an animal but a manifestation of the villagers’ fear. Stories of its attacks spread far and wide, capturing the imagination of the public and drawing the attention of royal officials. In 1765, King Louis XV dispatched a professional wolf hunter, and while a large wolf was killed two years later, the attacks continued, leading to speculation that the true beast had not been slain. Many villagers believed that the creature was a supernatural entity or a specter of their suffering.

The wolf, like in so many tales, is the scapegoat for misfortune, political mismanagement, widespread fear, and death. Gottlieb’s portrayal of the beast as a playful puppy—soft-eyed, tongue lolling, and paws folded in a pose of calm innocence—highlights this misplaced blame and prompts us to reconsider our bond with nature and the illusion of control. The wolf symbolizes wildness, the untamed, and free. Fear of wildness—both in nature and human nature—casts a shadow of threat, born of our quest for dominion. In Jungian psychology, the wolf represents the Shadow archetype, a reflection of the repressed and darker facets of the self. To embrace the wolf is to embark on a journey of self-discovery, unraveling the hidden depths of one’s instincts and desires, revealing the intricate dance of light and shadow within.

GUSTAF HOLTENÄS (b. 1991, Helsingborg, Sweden) lives and works in Athens, Greece. Holtenäs holds a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts, Stockholm and a BA in Engineering physics from Lund University, Lund. Holtenäs is a painter, animator, and director. He has directed videos for musicians such as Anna von Hausswolff, Caroline Polachek, AG Cook, and Jenny Wilson. Exhibitions include Nova Bienal Rio (Rio de Janeiro), Galleri Redan, (Malmö, Sweden), Guttestreker Studio (Oslo) and Liljevalch Vårsalong (Stockholm).

An apocalyptic sky bruised with green and yellow closes in on a collapsing structure, a ruin to be. A bomb pierces a decaying skeleton while long-silent bodies lie on an earth marred by cracks and crevices, dry, barren, destroyed. It’s a devastating scene. Sweden’s Tre Kronor glints in the sky amidst trailing explosives, personalizing the destruction. Today, we could be the perpetrators of such annihilation; tomorrow, another. The point is the tragedy of war and its never-ending cycle, unless we see it for what it is: death and ruin.

Written in 1513 and considered a foundational text of Western political thought, Machiavelli’s The Prince was crafted as a guide for Lorenzo de’ Medici on acquiring and maintaining power. This political treatise instructs the young Florentine prince to pursue domination and expand his rule by any means necessary, advocating the notion that the end justifies the means. Holtenäs’s title, Western Values I, paired with the utter decimation depicted in his work, spells out our future if we continue to uphold these values: the obliteration of peoples, ecosystems, cultures, and ultimately, our planet. Does the end truly justify the means? What are we fighting for that warrants such horrors? In the ultimate end, both victor and loser, in war or peace, stalk death. The powerful, beautiful, innocent, and holy will all perish—there is no escape, only acceptance.

KONRAD LIDÉN (b. 1989, Örebro, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. Lidén holds a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts, Stockholm and a BA in Aesthetics from Södertörn University, Stockholm. Exhibitions include Galleri Konstepidemin (Gothenburg, Sweden), Kumla Utställningshall (Kumla, Sweden), Flat Octopus (Stockholm) and Elk Glade Ranch (Elk Glade, Colorado).

Lidén sources inspiration for his work from video games, cartoons, fables, and popular culture, not the obvious aspects that make them iconic, but the ones that are forgotten—discarded shoes, shuttered windows, a wishing well. These are the remnants that populate his world, like objects washed ashore, waiting for new stories. Lidén breathes life into these overlooked elements, setting a scene for viewers to step into and build their own narratives. Like ruins, cropped images, or fragments, Lidén’s artscapes invite us to weave our stories into what remains.

Art Historian Linda Nochlin, in The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity, argues that ruins serve as transformative symbols that dismantle outdated power structures and oppressive traditions. The modern to postmodern experience often signifies a loss of wholeness—a breakdown of connections and the erosion of lasting value. The implications of cropping and fragmentation in art reflect the contingency of this reality—a meaningless flow devoid of narrative structure. Cropped borders serve as a playful designation in image-making, challenging habitual boundaries. These notions align with Lidén’s installations, which evoke an ethereal sense of make-believe, inviting viewers to engage with the potential for renewal and reinterpretation within cultural remnants.

INGRID SEGRING (b. 1994, Stockholm, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. Segring holds a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts, Stockholm. She has a background in architecture, with studies at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. Exhibitions include Coulisse Gallery (Stockholm), Kulturhuset Stadsteatern (Stockholm) and Röhsska Museet (Gothenburg, Sweden).

Segring’s A Ruin for Two traces an arc from societal ambition to its ultimate downfall, with five stars—nodding to ratings, accolades, and big wins—bouncing across the drawing. A toothy grin carries the pressure to maintain an unwavering smile, coping with the grind of go.

Presented in an authentic Svenska Spel frame, with the names of racehorses etched in red by the artist and reminiscent of subway ads, the drawing is further coded with themes of winning and specifically, gambling.
The concept of gambler’s ruin suggests inevitable loss when risk is pursued without restraint. In Segring’s work, objects of gambling—steeds, stars, and golden goblets—embody a fetishization of the unpredictable, luring us into an illusion of abundance and control. Segring’s muted color palette begins to drain the illusion, revealing the emptiness behind these fetishized objects and what they stand for. Additionally, the realism in the drawing takes on a performative role, like a worship of the image—an obsessive study of where illusion begins. Our society, its future held in quotation marks, is ironically overloaded with images of abundance, yet the emptiness of decay looms on the horizon.

AUREA TANTTU (b. 1996, Helsinki, Finland) lives and works in New York. Tanttu holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts, Stockholm and a BFA from Wimbledon College of Arts, London. She has exhibited in Helsinki, Stockholm, London, and Barcelona. Her work is included in the Ersta Diakoni Public Collection (Stockholm).

Aurea Tanttu approaches painting as a tool to dig out both past and future memories. Glossy surfaces whispering nocturnal kindle nostalgia; looking back with a turned head or stepping forward into moments heavy with hope. Akin to ruins that conjure both regret for lost totality and the abandonment of past values, Tanttu’s paintings cast twin spells of utopia and dystopia.

The painting Streatham is based on an old iPhone photo the artist captured long ago. One female leans back while another tips forward, both resting and gazing out into an arcadian landscape at night. A full moon peeks over the scene, thick beams of light arch behind the girls, splashing and scattering across the earth. Warm terra tones meet cool lunar light with affection as the females reminisce. In Nocturne Orb dense, dark air sinks into a thicket of trees sealed away. A venomous green fence meets a solitary marble orb, resembling witches’ hands encircling a crystal ball, reading fortunes past and future.

Each painting injects a feeling of homesickness or being thrown in another dimension. Sometimes it’s the moment when we are surrounded by what makes home when we feel the most homesick, we have everything to lose. The ultimate homesickness is existential and arrives when we recognize our corporeal life and identity is but a crinkle in time.

ANNIE ÅKERMAN (B. 1991, Stockholm, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm and a BFA from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, in addition to studying at The Cooper Union, New York. Recent exhibitions include Lokal-Int, (Biel/Bienne, Switzerland), Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus (Stockholm), Coulisse Gallery (Stockholm), Beau Travail (Stockholm) and Vandalorum Museum (Värnamo). She has an upcoming exhibition at The Tail (Brussels). Together with Anton Halla she runs the Stockholm-based art platform Cues.

Seasonings features two arc formations crafted from coated sheet metal, imitating the appearance of cardboard or unfolding paper boxes. The segments are joined with metal rivets, resembling air ducts and elements of industrial architecture. A nod to minimalist artist Posenenske’s Vierkantrohr, each element suggests potential for varied combinations, serving as prototypes for mass production.

A ruminal magnet, edged with green, clings to the side of one arch holding up a perforated paper partially ingested by silverfish. Used in livestock farming to prevent stomach punctures in cattle, the device attracts metal objects such as nails or wire that are swallowed while grazing. The magnet can be interpreted as a biopolitical tool to control and discipline a laboring body, assuring farmers optimal productivity with limited loss. The paper is a found information sheet from the Vasa Museum, a building erected around a salvaged 17th century shipwrecked ruin. The ship itself is an iconic representation of monumental failure caused by design flaws and King Gustav II Adolph of Sweden’s desire to complete construction swiftly in order to parade the kingdom’s power.

In general, Seasonings’ imitation of cardboard reinforces the argument that hurried desire comes at a cost, particularly when considering how cardboard is nearly synonymous with inexpensive packaging and throwaway culture. The unfolding forms evoke the idea of disposable containers, which act as temporary vessels for milk, food, and other products, leading us to consider what else might accumulate within their hollow interiors. Similarly, ruins can be viewed not only as emptied spaces but also as ground for something new.

LAUREN JOHNSON (b. 1990, Boulder, Colorado) lives and works in Stockholm. Johnson holds a BA in art history from The University of California, Berkeley, an MA in Curating including Art, Management and Law from Stockholm University and is an alumni of the post-graduate program CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts, Stockholm. Johnson is a freelance curator and writer. She founded Elk Glade Artist Residency in 2017, inviting artists of any discipline to unfold their practice in a rural environment. Johnson has curated exhibitions in caves, waterfalls, and islands, as well as in institutions and galleries in Sweden and the U.S. Often blending music performances, tarot readings, horseback riding, and parties, she creates experiences with exhibition-making. We’re Everlasting Energy is Johnson’s first curated exhibition at Loyal.