| Sofia Hultén, Familiars, 2007, image: Sofia Hultén |
Though not a recent work, Swedish artist Sofia Hultén’s video titled, Familiars, 2007, expresses how easily one’s home can become an off-kilter nightmare, by simply altering the environment in seemingly insignificant and unpredictable ways. More »
| Petra Lindholm, Till Anne Marie / For Anne Marie, 2010, image: Galleri Magnus Karlsson |
In Petra Lindholm’s fifth exhibition at Galleri Magnus Karlsson, titled “Till Anne Marie / For Anne Marie,” Lindholm’s new work exists alongside Peter Köhler’s complimentary exhibition “Star City Garden.” This Finnish artist dedicates her show to her blood relative; the content is based upon her great aunt’s personal narrative and history. More »
| Sara Jordenö, The Set House (Hedvig), 2010, image: Petrus Sjövik / Sara Jordenö |
Recently displayed alongside 53 other artists in Moderna Museet’s recent ”Modernautställningen 2010″—held every four years and constructed with the intention to represent the current Swedish contemporary art scene—Swedish artist Sara Jordenö shared her ongoing work, titled Persona Project/Persona-Projektet, 2000-2010. Born 1974 in Umeå but currently residing in New York City, Jordenö’s background in creative writing influences her creations, which are primarily text publications, image-based film/video/photography and installation. More »
| Viktor Rosdahl, Ein, Zwei, Drei, 2010, image: Christian Larsen |
Christian Larsen’s current exhibition “In Darkness, the Embrace of the Streets” displays recent paintings by Malmö-based artist Viktor Rosdahl. One in particular Ein, Zwei, Drei, 2010 can easily serve as a striking representative of both the dark climate and bleak temperament of Stockholm during winter. Using thick layers of textured ink on canvas expressing shades of white or pale grey on a dark grey or black background, Rosdahl is sensitive to both painterly detail and emotion. Miniscule brush strokes are detectable, suggesting an apocalyptic awe when considering the work’s grand dimensions. One mood portrayed appears to be influenced by forces which are not in anyone’s control, such as inevitable change, decay and regeneration found in nature, and perhaps unforeseeable mayhem or disaster. More »
| Sara-Vide Ericson, Liar VIII, 2010, image: Galleri Magnus Karlsson |
Sara-Vide Ericson’s first solo exhibition “Liar” at Galleri Magnus Karlsson evokes charged emotions. She paints like a moderately macabre Alex Katz with all the icy clarity of a Northern European. Her crisp paintings illuminate post-modern portraits, figures bent awkwardly into compromising positions—whether confined by their own solitude or in an incomprehensible power struggle with another. The bright, cool light in the paintings belies what remains unrevealed, as it seems impossible to pinpoint the relationships between figures. Yet, one senses that these rapports are either familial or sexual—always intimate and paradoxical. More »
| Gunilla Klingberg, Parallelareal Curry Lines, 2010, image: Galerie Nordenhake |
Stockholm-based Swedish artist Gunilla Klingberg presents an installation with five accompanying art objects reminding art lovers why it remains important to personally experience art in real life. The focus of this examination is on Klingberg’s oversized display of red grid lines entitled Parallelareal Curry Lines, 2010 that make their way across Galerie Nordenhake’s floor, creeping up walls and weaving their way through the open space. Many artists possess a longstanding historical and intrinsic interest in the occult, superstition and spirituality; Klingberg’s installation consisting of these fiery markers of vinyl tape persuade the viewer to consider Manfred Curry’s mystical invention of curry lines. Once used to help decipher the world’s electromagnetic energies―both positive and negative―through dowsing, these rods were part of an effort to unleash or locate natural phenomena buried within. More »
| Anders Petersen, From Back Home, 2008, image: Anders Petersen |
Well-known Swedish photographer Anders Petersen has been taking photographs since he left home at eighteen, beginning in Hamburg, Germany in the ’60s with outsider figures and acquaintances at a bar called Café Lehmitz, leading up to his latest show at Stockholm’s Fotografiska Museet displaying a fine-tuned collection of 100 black and white photographs taken in Värmland, Sweden. With so many photographs displayed side by side, it is easy to overlook some, focusing more on others that more permanently find their way into the viewer’s domain of interest. More »
| Daniel Andersson, Big Block Beauty, 2009, image: Daniel Andersson |
In Sweden—where public transportation is quite sufficient and considered to be superior to competing modes of mobility—it is an oddly welcome change of pace to see one’s creative focus shift towards the automobile culture. Swedish artist Daniel Andersson recently presented Big Block Beauty, 2009 alongside the work of twelve other artists in “Bilen i våra hjärtan” (i.e. “The Car in Our Hearts”) at Skövde Kulturhus. Situated in the heartland of Sweden, works in this group show expressed nostalgia towards what the car once was, appreciation for the its power and speed, as well as evaluate the environmental impact that these machines have on today’s volatile era. More »