Portfolio
Fred
Lindberg
Painting · Performance · Film · Alterpreconsistant Art
Fred – an artistry that sets places in motion
There are artists who primarily make objects and images, and there are artists whose work also consists of making something happen. Fred Lindberg, who works under the name Fred the Artist, belongs to both categories.
His practice spans painting, performance, photography, film, video, interventions and curating. But what perhaps most clearly unites these forms of expression is his ability to see possibilities where others see limitations, to bring people together, and to turn an idea into action, often before anyone has had time to spell out all the reasons why it would be hard to do.
Fred was born in Vänersborg in 1972 and grew up in Trollhättan. His artistic work has developed between Sweden and the United Kingdom, with around ten years in London and a long-standing foothold in the art and cultural life of Trollhättan.
In Trollhättan he has for several decades been a recognisable and at times unpredictable artistic presence. Through exhibitions, festivals, collaborations and interventions he has helped make contemporary art something that does not exist only within the walls of art institutions. His work has created meetings between established artists, younger practitioners, and people who might never have sought out a performance festival or an experimental art exhibition on their own.
It is a body of work whose significance cannot be read off merely from the number of exhibitions or finished pieces. It also lies in the contacts, experiences and artistic opportunities that his initiatives have left behind.
Artistic education – Gothenburg and London
Fred Lindberg’s artistic education is extensive and was carried out in both Sweden and the United Kingdom.
He began his art studies at KV konstskola in Gothenburg and continued at Göteborgs konstskola. The training gave him a grounding in the materials, techniques and traditions of visual art.
He then moved to London, where he studied Fine Art at London Metropolitan University and went on to a master’s degree at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The London years were decisive for his artistic development. Painting, which had been central from the start, came to exist alongside photography, performance, film and experimental work in which the action itself, or the encounter with the audience, could constitute the artwork.
The international environment also brought meetings with artists from different disciplines and traditions. Here Fred developed a way of working that still characterises his practice: seeking out people, creating connections between different artistic contexts, and testing ideas directly in reality.
His work is marked by a palpable trust in the unforeseen. A situation does not need to be fully defined before it begins. On the contrary, its artistic content can arise through the reactions, shifts and encounters that the action sets in motion.
Alterpreconsistant Art
Fred Lindberg has declared himself the originator of Alterpreconsistant Art, an artistic concept whose meaning he has described in several ways.
In an interview in 2019 he explains the concept through its contradictory components: change, that which precedes change, and that which remains constant. The whole becomes, in Fred’s own words, a zero-word that almost cancels itself out.
In a manifesto of his own he develops other aspects of the concept: artistic independence, playfulness, pleasure, unpredictability and revolt against established hierarchies, including those the artist creates himself.
In his artistic practice these ideas take concrete form through interventions, improvised actions, unexpected collaborations and displacements of everyday objects and situations.
The artist takes the liberty to act, and leaves it to the world around to try to make sense of what has just happened.
Works
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The return to painting, and Trollhättan
In 2019 Fred presented the exhibition Wish You Were Here at Pumphuset in Trollhättan. After several years of photography, film and performance he returned more clearly to painting. The exhibition included around ten larger portraits, several of them made directly on old, worn shutters from Pumphuset. By using the materials already in the place, its history became a physical part of the paintings. It was not merely pictures placed in an exhibition space, but works that related to the materiality of the place itself.
The exhibition was also a tribute to the artist Jonny Forsström, who has been important to Fred’s artistic development.
In 2019 Fred, together with Jörgen Stigh and Benny ”Boll” Larsson, founded the initiative The Project in Trollhättan. The venture was based on the idea that art need not depend on traditional galleries or established forms of distribution.
In the opening exhibition Alterpreconsistancy, tied to Fred’s own idea of Alterpreconsistant Art, he tried, among other things, to change the relationship between artwork, buyer and economic value. Instead of paying the artist, anyone wishing to acquire a work could be asked to donate money to, for example, the Red Cross or Médecins Sans Frontières.
It is a simple but fundamentally interesting intervention in the usual transaction of the art market. The value of the artwork becomes not only a question of ownership or price, but also of what action it can give rise to.
The same year his art was shown at Godahem in Trollhättan, where he also collaborated with David Nilsson & The Bon Vivants in an event that brought together music and visual art.
Between 2020 and 2025 Fred has taken part in Trollhättan Konsthall’s Öppen Salong (Open Salon) six years in a row, with works on different themes. This continuity shows how his local artistic activity continues alongside his international background.
The studio and events
A long-standing artistic commitment
Fred Lindberg’s artistic work spans several decades, from extensive art studies in Gothenburg and London to international exhibitions, film and performance projects, festival activity and continuous work in Trollhättan. His artistry is marked by curiosity, inventiveness and an unusual readiness to turn ideas into action. He seeks out people and contexts where something is not yet defined and where art can open up possibilities that did not exist from the start.
It is also through this work that he has contributed to the artistic life of Trollhättan. Not only through his own works, but by creating occasions for others to meet, take part, be surprised and discover new forms of expression.
A large part of his artistic history is still preserved in people’s memories, in personal networks and in documentation that has not yet been compiled. Reconstructing this history is therefore also a task of making visible an artistic practice that has largely unfolded outside the documentation systems of the established institutions.
Fred’s artistry cannot be reduced to a single discipline. What holds together his painting, performance, film and curatorial activity is rather a conviction that art can arise through action, and that a person, a place or a passing situation can always hold the possibility of something else.
Alterpreconsistancy – art as social action
A recurring feature of Fred Lindberg’s artistry is that he does not regard the boundary between art and everyday life as particularly self-evident.
He likes to work in situations where something unexpected can happen, where a chance acquaintance can grow into a collaboration, or where a seemingly insignificant event turns out to carry an artistic possibility.
This also means that his work does not always follow a traditional order of production in which idea, planning, execution and presentation can be separated from one another.
For Fred, artistic work can begin with a meeting, an impulse or a place. The form then develops through the action and through the people who become involved.
His long experience of working with other artists, organising festivals and initiating collaborations shows that this way of working also holds considerable practical skill. Realising artistic projects takes perseverance, problem-solving, negotiation and the ability to engage other people.
It is easy to underestimate this skill when artistic activity is mainly reported through individual works and lists of exhibitions. In Fred’s case, the very ability to create artistic contexts is an essential part of his work.