Alva Jakobsson studied Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at Konstfack, where she developed a materially driven and research-based practice exploring questions of authenticity, value, and imitation. Her work moves fluidly between theory and making, using everyday observations and personal experiences as points of departure for broader investigations into cultural meaning and perception.
Her degree project, Ytlig omsorg (Superficial Care), takes the tiled stove as a starting point to examine its symbolic significance in contemporary contexts. Through imitation techniques, decorative painting, and historical references, the project questions distinctions between the authentic and the artificial, asking whether imitation can hold value beyond replication. As part of this exploration, Alva studied traditional decorative painting techniques such as drickamålning (Swedish beer painting) and rökmarmorering (smoke marbling). By learning these historical crafts and then challenging, reinterpreting, and further developing them through experimentation, she investigates how inherited techniques can generate new meanings in a contemporary setting.
Alva has received several recognitions for her work, including the Stiftelsen Den Nordiska Första St. Johannislogens Jubelfond Scholarship, as well as scholarships from Nyköpings Konstförening, Konstfack, and the Estrid Ericson Foundation. Her practice has been noted for its reflective and critical engagement with everyday life and contemporary culture.
Working across spatial installations, furniture, and interior details, Alva engages with materials such as wood, ceramics, metal, textiles, and paint. She often sources leftover or discarded materials, allowing limitations to shape her process while exploring how value can be transformed through craftsmanship, surface treatment, and reinterpretation. Historical techniques and traditions play an important role in her work, serving not as fixed references but as material for experimentation and renewal.
Her process is driven by curiosity and often begins with a question, emotion, or observation. Through writing, research, and hands-on exploration, ideas emerge organically, with form developing through making rather than being predetermined. Craftsmanship is central to her approach, functioning as both a method of thinking and a way of navigating uncertainty through trial and error.
Alva’s work is guided less by functionality than by a desire to evoke reflection, tell stories, and challenge established perceptions. By combining intuition, material exploration, historical references, and critical inquiry, she creates work that engages with cultural values and the overlooked narratives embedded in everyday objects and spaces.
