Ideas Man

The work of artist Rikki Niehaus in her ongoing series, “Swedish Landscapes”, a collection of portraits posed inside the home-interiors of an IKEA store. This collection of oil paintings may seem benign, but they are in fact eerily engaging and humorously critical.

The suited gentleman who serves as the subject of the paintings is aperfect t for the setting. In fact, he is just another shopper, stoppingto sit on a chair or a sofa. The series serves not only as a critique ofconsumer culture, but as a mirror to its arti ciality and the illusions thatwe accept and desire, as reality.