Artist Zoom

Swedish, with long blond hair matched with a long blonde moustache are usually the distinctive factors of Johan Karlgren, who produces art under the name of Pappas Pärlor. What is even more distinctive though is the medium of his art, coming in the form of beads to produce figures of popular culture which the artist then installes in subtle places throughout the world.

Originally an Art student, most of his time was soon spent skateboarding instead of going to school. He eventually went on to opening a video game store, a skate shop and having a few kids. It was because of his children that he was encouraged to work in art again, beginning to create bead art with his children to break gender roles. 

Preferring to work on smaller projects, he enjoys creating minimalistic pieces where he only uses a maximum of 90 beads and is usually done in two minutes. Johan’s hometown is adorned with more than 500 figures of his art pieces. A town whose inhabitant were not, at first, not the most supportive of his art, he managed to convince them that what he does is legal and, above all, adds light and fun to the place.