Four days from now, I will be standing in Seattle, surrounded by paintings, preparing to welcome people into the second Art Meet.
It is strange to think that this all began with me losing my voice.
Last year, during an exhibition opening with Barlow Gallery in Bellevue, I was supposed to speak about my paintings. Just before the talk, my voice disappeared.
My daughter stepped in.
She started talking about one of the paintings and what she saw in it. Someone else added their thoughts. Then someone else.
Suddenly, we weren’t talking about what the painting was supposed to mean. We were talking about what we each saw and felt in it.
The painting became a conversation.
That moment stayed with me.
I began wondering what would happen if conversation wasn't something that happened after looking at art, but became part of the art experience itself.
What if we simply gave people time to look?
Time to notice what a painting awakens in them.
And then time to share it.
That question became Art Meet.
The first Art Meet
On September 3, I held the first official Art Meet at Karlstad CCC in Sweden.
People came together around my paintings without needing to know anything about art.
There was no lecture about what the paintings meant. There was only one question:
What’s the story?
People looked. They wrote. They talked in small groups. They listened to one another.
And something happened that I had hoped for, but couldn't really know in advance.
The conversations started with the paintings, but they didn’t always stay there.
Afterwards, Maria Lindblad described her experience in a way that has stayed with me:
“Mötet med människorna. Mötet med tavlan. Det var underbart.”
The meeting with the people.
The meeting with the painting.
It was wonderful.
She also said:
“Sedan fick man ju också dela livsberättelser.”
You also got to share life stories.
For me, that explains something essential about Art Meet.
The painting is the starting point.
But what unfolds around it belongs to the people in the room.
At Karlstad CCC, we had people from 8 to 89 years old. The conversations moved from colour and paintings to music, ideas, memories and life experiences. One person even told me that something she saw during the evening gave her a new perspective on an important question in her life.
In some ways, it reminded me of a book circle. You gather around something that gives you a starting point, and then you discover where the conversation takes you.
Or perhaps it is a little like sitting around a campfire.
You gather around something.
And somehow, stories begin.
Now I'm bringing Art Meet back to Seattle
And now I'm here again.
Back in Seattle, I am painting, preparing, thinking about the evening ahead and wondering what stories these paintings will awaken this time.
It feels particularly meaningful to bring Art Meet back to the city where the idea was born.
This time, it will happen on the 41st floor of Kinects Tower, with Seattle stretching out around us.
I am returning in collaboration with Barlow Gallery, the gallery that was part of that unexpected moment when Art Meet began.
The paintings will be there.
So will the views.
But most of all, I am curious about the people who will walk into the room.
I don't know what will be said.
I don't know which painting someone will choose.
I don't know what story might emerge from a colour, a gesture, a figure or a few words written into the paint.
And I don't want to know.
Because that is part of the beauty of Art Meet.
I’m hoping to be surprised again.
A painting is an invitation
When I paint, I don't always begin with a clear story.
I create my paintings from how I feel and see the world, but I am very curious about the stories other people see in them.
There are no right or wrong interpretations.
Sometimes someone tells me something about a painting that I had never seen myself.
And when that happens, the painting changes for me too.
The story they see becomes part of the painting.
Perhaps that is why my daughter's words in Bellevue changed something for me.
She didn't explain what the painting meant.
She told us what she saw.
And suddenly everyone else had permission to do the same.
That is the spirit I am bringing back to Seattle.
Not a lecture about art.
Not a room where you need to know the right words.
Just paintings, people, curiosity and conversation.
And one question:
What’s the story?
If you would like to read more about how Art Meet began, I was recently interviewed by CB Herald about the story behind the concept, from that first unexpected moment in Bellevue to Karlstad and the return to Seattle.
Redefining the Gallery Experience: How Ingela Johansson’s Art Meet Rekindles Human Connection
Art Meet Seattle
September 26, 2026 · 5–8 PM
Kinects Tower · 41st Floor
1823 Minor Ave, Seattle
In collaboration with Barlow Gallery.
