We are excited to present a curated selection of works by glass artist Josefin Bravo and painter Johnathan Daily at this year’s Market Art Fair 2025.
Light / Color
Light shapes human experience, from primitive fires to its paradoxical nature as both wave and particle. Artists Josefin Bravo and Jonathan Daily explore light through material and layers. Bravo’s work embodies strength and vulnerability, using glass to contrast raw metal forms. Influenced by punk’s rebellious edge, her pieces emphasize resilience and freedom, merging elegance with grit. Her glass, both delicate and commanding, challenges boundaries to mirror the strength and physicality of her own body. In painting, light becomes a layered tool. Jonathan Daily applies paint in strata—sometimes hundreds of layers—to reveal depth over time. As light shifts, hidden brushstrokes reveal images, shifting between figuration and abstraction, like scenes unfolding in a film.
Embodiment / Agency / Space
Josefin envisions her creations as bodies that crawl around, searching for a placeto conquer, rest, or settle. In contrast, Jonathan conceptualizes his works as spacesthat invite the viewer to “crawl around in” the paintings with their eyes. While Josefine bestows agency upon the object, Jonathan grants this agency to the viewer.The movement begins, and the boundary between object and subject is obscured.
Capturing / Fixating / Time
The movement and crawling sensation described by both Jonathan and Josefin convey a sense of transformation or escape, capturing light and summoning color. Daily’s paintings often give the impression of figures moving across the canvas; sometimes they glide through the scene, while at other times they pulsate with dynamic energy, full of motion and vibrancy. Similarly, movement is present in Josefin’s work, where the fluidity of glass interacts with its surroundings. However, in her pieces, the sequence is reversed. The finished artwork is frozen in time, and to experience the movement, the viewer is taken back to the moment before it was fixed, just as the final form settles. Like the god Janus from Roman mythology, Jonathan and Josefin stand back to back against each other in the present, one gesturing towards the future and the other towards the past.
JOHNATHAN DAILY (b. 1974) is a Swedish-American artist, based in Stockholm since 2000. He received his B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999, having previously studied at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. With a career spanning several decades, Daily has held numerous solo exhibitions, including recent shows at Galleri Duerr in Stockholm, such as “Blixtfisket” (2023) and“Surfing the Apocalypse” (2021). His artwork has also been showcased in various group exhibitions throughout Sweden and the U.S., where he has garnered significant recognition, including the Örebro OpenART Award in 2009. With an impressionistic approach to color and an intuitive method of selection,Daily explores three-dimensionality while maintaining true to his classical roots. Daily views his paintings as verbs rather than nouns, creating immersive experiences that engage viewers emotionally. Daily’s artistic approach revolves around working in series, highlighting his dedication and thoughtful engagement with his craft. Past series like “Black Rainbow,”“Complexity,” and “Shifted Blended” not only contrast with each other but also build upon one another, showcasing the evolution of his artistic journey. In his most recent series, titled “Blixtfisket” (Fishing for Lightning), Daily captures fleeting impulses, although the execution of each piece can stretch over two years. Repetition plays a crucial role, with layers of paint being applied anywhere from 7 to 200 times through-out several years, a process he describes as an “accrual of layered strata.” In the absence of distinct motifs, titles, and colors serve as core carriers of meaning, drawing attention to both vibrant and negative spaces in his work. Daily’s art invites viewers to linger, allowing previously hidden layers to emerge as light shifts through-out the day, transforming brushstrokes into birds, faces, and rainbows. This interplay enables his pieces to navigate between figuration and abstraction fluidly. Through his experimental approach to painting, Daily breaks rules, offering surprising moments that affirm him as a significant contemporary painter.
JOSEFIN BRAVO’s (b. 1983) journey as a glass artist began as an intuitive calling pushing her to make the move from Malmö to the “Kingdom of Crystal” (Glasriket) in Örsjö to pursue her long standing passion for glass. After graduating from Riksglasskolan in 2022, she established herself at “The Glass Factory” in Boda. Since its inception, her work has been exhibited at venues like Kalmar Konstmuseum and “The Glass Factory,” where she continues to challenge the constraints of contemporary glass art. Recent shows include the Röhsska Museet (Nov 2024 – Jan 2025) and the IKEA Museum (Sept-Oct 2024). In 2023, she showcased solo works at The Glass Factory and received the Ung Svensk Form award, leading to a touring exhibition in 2024. Having worked as a glassblower for less than four years, Josefine has already asserted herself as an artist to watch. Bravo’s creations, inspired by color, humor, and provocation, are ever-evolving, reflecting her restless creativity. Bravo approaches her art as a live performance, where the creative process unfolds with immediacy and intensity, often accompanied by loud music. Her own musical journey as a double bass player, marked by years in orchestras, chamber groups, and punk bands, has instilled within her practice a sense of discipline and harmony—qualities now central to her glassblowing. When the molten glass, heated to over 1000 degrees, is on her pipe, the symphony commences. In her artistic practice, Bravo delves into the interplay between beauty and rawness, challenging the boundaries of glass by juxtaposing it with rigid, cold, and angular objects, creating a striking contrast to the material’s glossy surface. This combination highlights the inherent duality of glass: its smooth surface alongside its sharpness—an instantaneous transition between hot and cold that can occur in mere seconds. By skillfully manipulating materials with the force of gravity and her own physical strength, she allows the “bling” of glass to emerge, allowing it to reflect both its refined and untamed nature.