Coulisse Gallery Brings Sacred Symbols and Serpents to Liste Basel 2025

From 16 to 22 June 2025, Coulisse Gallery is proud to present the work of Swedish artist Ferdinand Evaldsson at the 30th edition of Liste Art Fair Basel, where tradition and introspection converge in a striking exploration of memory, identity, and sacred space.

For this year’s edition, Evaldsson’s presentation explores the temple as a metaphor for the human body and memory. His works evoke the silent sanctity of the Temple of Solomon, believed to have been constructed in solemn quietude to honour sacred ground.

Through this lens, Evaldsson reveals layered realms of inner life. Snakes, appearing throughout the works, slither symbolically through imagined interiors, creatures of both danger and redemption, echoing themes of fragility, forgotten knowledge, and the ever-shifting relationship between master and apprentice.

Born in 1988, Evaldsson began his training in Orthodox Byzantine icon painting at the age of sixteen. His formative years took him from Sweden to Cairo during the 2011 Arab Spring, where he immersed himself in the expressive richness of the Coptic iconographic tradition—a visual language rediscovered in the mid-20th century after centuries of obscurity.

Amid civil unrest, Evaldsson found refuge in the austere beauty of Sinai’s ancient monasteries. The stark desert light, pigment-rich frescoes, and contemplative silence continue to inform the visual and emotional language of his work.

Evaldsson’s practice is both devotional and daring, crafting a dialogue between personal memory and collective history.

His iconographic style becomes a vessel for contemporary reflection, touching on themes of loss, introspection, and the fragile pursuit of wisdom in a world where ancient truths often drift from view.