Here at Affordable Art Fair, we've unanimously decided that there’s nothing better than introducing the world to a new artist. Meet Asaf Kliger, a photographer from Sweden.
Over the years, we’ve had the enormous privilege of working with thousands of artists and being part of their artistic journeys. Read our latest artist success stories.
One such artist is Asaf Kliger, a photographer from Sweden who exhibited at our Stockholm and Amsterdam fairs in 2022. Asaf has worked in some fairly extreme conditions, such as -25 degree temperatures in Swedish Lapland and a remote camel farm in Israel. He’s currently the official photographer of the Ice Hotel in Sweden, where he’s exhibiting at the newly opened art gallery. We’re fascinated by his chilly daily routine!
My background is from the art academy Bezalel in Jerusalem, where I studied a Bachelor in Fine Arts, specializing in photography. I finished in 2009 and after that, I was represented by Vision Gallery in Jerusalem. The owner decided to take me to different art fairs around the world, like Aipad Art fair in New York and Art Toronto. I guess that’s where I really got an eye for all the fantastic art across the globe.
During Covid, I had to stop travelling for my photo assignments and I had to rethink my everyday life. I decided to open an online art shop. One day I had to go to Lund in the south of Sweden to buy a drawer for all the printing papers. As I loaded the drawer into my car, by chance I saw there was an empty store just next to the car. I asked the seller of the drawer if she knew why it was empty. She told me that she was in charge of the space and that the last owners had to leave because of the challenging times. Now it was free and she asked if I wanted it!
At that moment it felt like a light hit me and I realised that I could meet my clients in real life instead of online. I took a leap and said yes! I opened Kliger Gallery in September 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, but I am really happy that I took the chance. In the last 2.5 years, we have created 15 exhibitions from scratch, from photography and paintings to sculpture and video art.
In December 2022, we opened a sister gallery in the very north of Sweden, at the famous Icehotel. I have been the official photographer for Icehotel for the last couple of years and it’s really my dream place when it comes to inspiration.
With snow-covered trees, crystal clear ice, dark nights, and many different lights depending on the season – it’s a fairytale playground for creating art. It was a dream come true to open up a gallery there so that the guests of Icehotel can bring an art memory from their trip back to their homes, all over the world.
Around 20,000 visitors have been visiting the gallery at Icehotel so far.
Some people are writing notebooks, some are making short films. My way of capturing life and creating art is to take photos that contain a certain time or event, a sequence rather than a decisive moment. This is how I explore the world through photography.
I started to take photos in this way when I was asked to photograph a basketball game as a sports photographer 20 years ago. In addition to the shot that my editor asked for I did a long exposure of the whole game, revealing more layers than just one shot showing the decisive moment.
During my years of exploring photography with long and multi exposures, I have captured many different events, movements, and situations, such as the nerve-wracking moments when Usain Bolt was winning the 100m final at the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro in 2016, as well as the movements of the ocean during a surf session and the change between seasons from fall to winter with a 30 day multi-exposure technique.
By using both long-exposure and multi-exposure techniques, the viewer of the images can experience the whole event or the movement. Sometimes the spectators in the events are just shown as blurry shadows and sometimes they disappear fully. But the place, the movement, and the event is there, showing the viewer a unique story captured in time and space.
I guess the most extreme is my artwork “the Green River”, which was shot in Swedish Lapland.
It was -25 degrees centigrade, and a totally dark night when I saw an indication that a northern light had started. I went to my favourite spot to try to capture both the river and the northern lights together. Luckily, it was a really dark night and the river was still not frozen. Suddenly I saw that the northern lights were reflecting on the river. At that point, I realised that I have a once in a lifetime photo that no one would believe was real. Years later,I had the chance to meet the prime minister of Sweden and tell him about the story of the photo and my background.
I live in the countryside in Sweden. I usually wake up early – before my wife and two kids – to get some time to myself.
We have a hot tub in our garden that I use as a cold bath at the moment. So first thing in the morning I’m taking a cold bath in the 2-degree water for a few minutes. That gives me so much adrenaline and helps me to be focused and feel alive.
After breakfast, I send my kids to kindergarten and take the train to Lund to my gallery.
At the gallery, I start my work, print my art, put together artworks for clients, or have meetings with clients or artists.
Since we are located on the main street in Lund we have many people popping by the gallery, which I really like! I want everyone to feel welcome and love having conversations about life and art with them.
Kliger Galleries exhibited for the first time at Affordable Art Fair Stockholm in 2022. When I took my artwork from the car and went to the big hall, I realised that this is such a big stage and I felt honoured to take part with so many great galleries and artists.
At the fair, I tried to talk with everyone and I had very interesting conversations about art and the life of people. I really believe that it is important to tell the story of the art and to make the client feel part of the story. If the clients fall in love with the art, they will take not only the picture home, but also the story.
After Stockholm, we wanted to do things differently for the next fair. When we went to Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam in October 2022, we had some new ideas that made it even better!
The fairs give me a good drive to create and gather more art. We will be heading to Stockholm later this year and we’re always looking for new possibilities to exhibit at Affordable Art Fair.
Kliger Gallery is going to be an art collective, so right now I have a lot of interesting meetings with selected Swedish artists to make a creative art space with a big variety of artists who I will hopefully bring to future art fairs.
In addition, we have a big exhibition about the art side of the bird with artists from all around the world.
Sending a huge thank you to Asaf for taking the time to respond to our questions! It’s been great to hear about his practice and get some insight into the development of his career. You can find out more about Asaf and keep up with his work by giving his gallery a follow on Instagram. Kliger Gallery will be exhibiting at Affordable Art Fair Stockholm in 2023. Make sure you snap up tickets when they go on sale!
Main credits: Asaf Kliger, ‘The Green River’, handmade photographic print, 52 x 72cm, Kliger Gallery