‘Exhalation’ - Alexander Ekholm
April 4th 2026 - Written by Ellis Brown
Swedish visual artist Alexander Ekholm explores intimacy and desire in their new exhibition “Exhalation”. The title of the exhibition comes from the moment just after the holding of breath, exploring intimacy, emotional suspension, and release.
The exhibition was held in Algha’s Plantroom, a cultural hotspot for experimental performance in Hackney Wick, which has played home to ‘Underworld’, ‘Solid State’, and ‘Playbody’. As you duck through a small doorway on the quiet street and up the unassuming staircase, you are greeted with a bloom of warming red light, which envelops the room, coating the hanging images suspended from the ceiling.
Ekholm’s practice centres around the body as a site of communication, with identity and vulnerability at the core. Drawing upon their lived experience within London queer communities, they capture the explorative ecstasy presented in the movement and touch in their images. Informed by a background in karate and dance, the body in Ekholm’s images carries a sense of control, where emotional states are articulated physically rather than verbally.
The exhibition marks Ekholm’s first solo show, with 4 separate strings of images suspended on metal rods from the ceiling. The first, nearest to the entrance, flows gently through a story of closeness and intimacy, through a shared perspective. The work depicts two figures gazing upon each other, and the touch of both entwined within each other's grasp. There is a tension to the sensuality within the images, leaving the viewer with a sense of voyeuristic viewing, like a 3rd party to a scene already at play. This tension helps to deepen the connection to the theme of ‘Exhalation’, it gives you the feeling of the moment just before the release through the snapshot in time.
The second section, which sits parallel to this at the end of the room, shows an insight into a reflection of the self, moments held between yourself and the mirror, all bathed in red light. This work focuses on the shape of the body, feeling inherently sensual and vulnerable, without explicit sexual actions being depicted. This is a set of images that makes the viewer reflect on themselves, in direct juxtaposition to the previous set, where before you felt as if you were privately observing, here the imagery is for the self, the person behind the camera and no one else.
In direct contrast to this, the third section has a direct and forward focus on sensuality through arousal, which is evident through the deliberate artistic choice to depict a subject's erect and flaccid penis in a duo of images, through a pair of translucent green silk shorts and laced pink underwear, respectively. Ekholm’s work has a consistent theme of exploring the politics of gender, and that is done with great success here. Stereotypical feminine undergarments and colours contrast with the strength of the poses, yet there is still a gentle undertone through the pose work, and separation between body and identity.
The images are captured over the last 2 years, through planned and researched conceptual shoots as well as in-the-moment images, all to feed into an overarching narrative of the body as a vessel for vulnerable communication. It was beautiful to observe the extension of intimacy in the friends, art critics and visitors that were present on the opening night, all talking, touching arms, an exchange of kisses, some greeting, some intimate. The display of the exhibit itself was an ‘Exhalation’, a release after a long period of concentration and emotional tension.
Be sure to explore Alexander Ekholm’s other works, spanning photography, digital, and 3D, all with a focus on the mediation of bodies and their perception through images.
Exhibition press shots courtesy of lukas Van Oudenhove
