Malcolm af Donner

About the Artist

Malcolm af Donner (b. 1991) works with large scale watercolour painting. With a background in ancient history and archaeology, his recent work abstracts excavation sites, using their spatial logic to bring together temporally disconnected objects. Watercolour affords a space where these subjects can be reconsidered, creating a non-perspectival depth that reflects the multifaceted and non-linear nature of history. 

Exhibitions

BFA Exhibition 2026

11 Sept–11 Oct Kuva/Tila

About the artwork

Bananas, books and pieces of marble statue lay strewn about alongside each other. These objects could exist together, yet their proximity resists easy meaning. This is how history often appears when we attempt to uncover it.

Archaeological excavation sites are a good illustration of this – at times messy –nature of history, and painting affords a space where I can reconsider my background and interest in these subjects from a new perspective, through which I can reorganise the order of my own experience.

My recent work abstracts excavation sites, using their spatial logic to bring together temporally disconnected objects. I have found watercolour a particularly suitable medium for establishing a dialogue between material and theme. Its delicacy conveys the fleetingness of a moment and its layering allows images to emerge through one another, creating a non-perspectival depth that reflects the multifaceted nature of history.