JACOB ADLER

Born 2003

"As an architecture student, I use drawing to create architectural plans. For me, these plans are not just a tool for creating measurable representations, but are also an opportunity to analyse, to process, to explore and to experiment with existing and conceptual environments.

In my drawings, I often use an oblique projection (a type of parallel projection) that depicts objects and environments in three dimensions, where plan and elevation are measurable. My drawings range from depicting carefully measured places and environments, where every detail is represented to provide an accurate image, to exploring conceptual spatialities, where adding everyday objects and activities creates liminal and absurd environments. Drawings enable me not only to gather information that provides an understanding of what is represented, but also to go several steps further by, for example, showing change through displacement, addition and movement. Drawing becomes a way for me to analyse and understand what exists and what happens around us."

Currently studying architecture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture

Photos: Julia Adler

JACOB ADLER

Jacob Adler participates in the scholarship competition and exhibition with five drawings created 2025–2026.

Pencil on paper.

1. shipshaped area
2. absence
3. home habits
4. private and public
5. everything that sounds

Click on the artworks in the slideshow to see full images, or scroll down. It can take a little while for the images to upload. Enlarge the drawings by choosing zoom or full page via the tool box by each image.

THE SELECTION COMMITTEE'S MOTIVATION:
Jacob Adler’s drawings describe society’s machinery, mass production and limitations. His use of the architect’s traditional language – pencil and paper – expresses the absurdity of civilisation. What may at first glance resemble ordinary axonometric projections turns out, on closer inspection, to contain repetitions and movements that give his drawings a life of their own.

shipshaped area
Pencil on paper, 2025. Original size 61x41cm.
absence
Pencil on paper, 2026. Original size 35x35cm
home habits
Pencil on paper, 2025. Original size 101x61cm.
private and public
Pencil on paper, , 2025. Original size 59x42cm.
everything that sounds
Pencil on paper, 2025. Original size 42x30cm.