We congratulate the artists Henrik Jonsson, Rakel Bergman Fröberg and Tekla Bergman Fröberg, who are the Maria Bonnier Dahlins Foundation Grant Recipients 2026. They will receive a prize of SEK 100,000 each. The grant recipients will be presented in an extensive exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall 9 Dec 2026–14 Feb 2027. In 2026, the Maria Bonnier Dahlins Foundation celebrates 40 years, four decades of supporting young artists.

The Maria Bonnier Dahlins Foundation annually awards grants to young Swedish artists to support them in their work. The foundation was founded by Jeanette Bonnier (1934–2016) in memory of her daughter Maria, who died in a car accident in 1985, aged just 20. Maria studied architecture at Columbia University in New York and was part of a circle of young artists. Since the first grant was awarded in 1986, the foundation has sought out the new and the innovative for 40 years, and the artists who have received the grant over the years are now some of Sweden’s most notable.

The 2026 guest jury is the artist and former grant recipient Olof Inger and the director of the Liljevalchs art gallery Joanna Sandell Wright. The jury is led by Christel Engelbert, who has been the foundation’s chairwoman since 2016 and is driving the development of the grant.

The Jury’s Statement

Henrik Jonsson

We have chosen to award Henrik Jonsson the 2026 Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation Grant. Jonsson is an artist who manages to make the complicated relationship between our history and ourselves accessible by combining unexpected objects and materials. Simple and playful with a masterful hand, where difficult questions are broken against layers of cultures and myths – combined in sensual sculptures and magnificent installations.

Rakel Bergman Fröberg and Tekla Bergman Fröberg

We have chosen to award Rakel Bergman Fröberg and Tekla Bergman Fröberg the 2026 Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation Grant. For their artistic practise that is characterised by an unusual trust in the artistic process. With curiosity, creative joy and a fearless approach to materials, they have developed a personal visual language where the artworks are allowed to grow through the work. In their art, everyday objects are transformed into enigmatic figures and worlds – where play, seriousness and mystery meet. Their works carry a strong sense of freedom and show what can emerge when intuition and material are allowed to lead the way. Rakel Bergman Fröberg and Tekla Bergman Fröberg have developed generous and inspiring artistic practices that we look forward to following for a long time to come.

About Henrik Jonsson

Henrik Jonsson, born in 1991, was educated at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, and now works in Stockholm. Jonsson works with sculptures that raise questions about history, identity and how cultural capital is created and distributed. The works combine art historical references with experiences and aesthetics from the countryside. Jonsson’s works have been shown at, among others, Galleri Andersson/Sandström in Stockholm, Nationalmuseum and the art biennial OpenArt in Örebro. He has also been an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and at the Royal Institute of Art’s studio in Grez-sur-Loing.

About Tekla Bergman Fröberg

Tekla Bergman Fröberg, born in 1994, was educated at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, and now works in Gothenburg. In her works, everyday objects as well as objects loaded with different meanings meet materials in transformation, where disassembly, collapse and reconstruction recur as central themes. Bergman Fröberg’s clay sculptures can be seen as both portraits and extensions of herself and the world we live in, while she investigates power structures and the relationship between people, things and the environment. Her work is characterised by a fascination with the fragility of things and life, but also by a desire to let the broken become the starting point for something new. Recently, she has worked with sculptures of prams and other found objects – together with her twin sister Rakel Bergman Fröberg – where different media are used to process experiences and the changing conditions of our time. Tekla Bergman Fröberg’s work has been shown at Galleri Hammarén in Gothenburg, Galleri Andersson/Sandström in Stockholm, 3:e Våningen in Gothenburg, Köttinspektionen in Uppsala and at Göteborgs Konsthall, among others.

About Rakel Bergman Fröberg

Rakel Bergman Fröberg, born in 1994, was educated at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, and now works in Gothenburg. In her art, she investigates materials, motherhood and the relationship between the body, everyday life and the surrounding world. Bergman Fröberg works with wood-engravings and found objects, among other things, which she collects and processes into sculptures and physical archives. In her work, the pram recurs as a motif and transforms into sculptures and monuments to motherhood. Some of these sculptures are collaborations with her twin sister Tekla Bergman Fröberg. Rakel Bergman Fröberg’s work is characterised by a fascination with the resistance and inherent power of materials, sometimes through an investigation of the visible and invisible the rules of the game between humans and predators, between strong and weak. Through physical and repetitive work, she investigates how sculpture can emerge in a dialogue between hand, material and thought. Bergman Fröberg’s work has been shown at, among others, Galleri Hammarén in Gothenburg, Galleri Andersson/Sandström in Stockholm, 3:e Våningen in Gothenburg, Köttinspektionen in Uppsala and at Göteborgs Konsthall.