Peter Ern, Electric Light

Peter Ern
Peter Ern, Electric Light, 2011, image: Peter Bergman

Peter Ern’s solo exhibition “A Place Called Home” displays new, large scale paintings predominantly focused on dry or wintry landscapes which many could argue are devoid of a detectable action or livelihood, as well as others drawing attention to the commonplace, external architectures of Sweden―Soviet-style apartment complexes, tucked away stugas/country houses, kojans/huts in the woods or inner, industrial spaces such as in Ern’s Electric Light, 2011. If Ern’s “A Place Called Home” is approached as a series, Electric Light, 2011 doesn’t follow suit as comfortably as the others, bringing the viewer inside an abandoned space in contrast. More »

Gardar Eide Einarsson, ”Power Has a Fragrance”

Gardar Eide Einarsson
Gardar Eide Einarsson, Caligula, 2010, image: Mattias Givell

Norwegian artist Gardar Eide Einarsson’s major solo exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall, titled “Power Has a Fragrance,” marks the first time his work has been shown in Sweden. Einarsson is well aware that––as a formally trained artist often given the opportunity to display work in museum settings––he produces art from a position of privilege, and he does not shy away from criticizing his own creative role within artistic institutions. More »

Dan Holdsworth, ”Blackout”

Dan Holdsworth
Dan Holdsworth, Blackout 09, 2010, image: Dan Holdsworth

Dan Holdsworth’s twist on landscape photography is introduced to Sweden, a country well-versed in climatic extremes. Nordin, a niche gallery established in 2007, accentuates a cluster of Holdsworth’s prints of enormous proportions, depositing one particular set apart from the others—back-lit in a smaller, adjacent room most likely meant for video installations. Claiming that inspiration for this series came from New York’s power failures of the 1960s, Holdsworth in ”Blackout” reminds the viewer that certain flavors of panic and unrest are cyclical—one keen emotion present yesterday, perhaps back again today. More »

Petra Lindholm, Till Anne Marie / For Anne Marie

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, Persona Project

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 »

Joakim Eneroth, ”Short Stories of the Transparent Mind”

Joakim Eneroth, The Past is Gone, The Future is Cancelled, 2008, image: Joakim Eneroth

I wish I could take these home with me. As contradictory as it may seem, a room filled with a family of such an aesthetic possession might be its own cure. The actual collection of texts and photographs, “Short Stories of the Transparent Mind,” by Stockholm-based artist Joakim Eneroth is larger than what is presented in the gallery, but one is still able to discern that notions of absence and emptiness are seriously and creatively approached. More »

Jonas Nobel, ”Display of Loss—This Play We Lost”

Jonas Nobel
Jonas Nobel, view of Display of Loss—This Play We Lost,
2010, image: Galleri Charlotte Lund

A narrative installation inspired by his mythical novel that also serves as an entry point, Jonas Nobel’s fourth solo exhibition, “Display of Loss—This Play We Lost,” offers his svelte sculptural version of a raft, as well as a geometric mountain range and a porthole-framed sketch with view of a tumultuous sea. The works are connected to the novel Nobel has written, which shares a title with the exhibition and tells the story of a burdened crew destined to fail in delivering unwanted merchandise to an infinite number of harbors, instead ending up shipwrecked on an island, disillusioned, and haunted by memories from their earlier lives. More »

”The Collective Coral Colony”

Nevin Aladag
Nevin Aladag, Mezzanine (Hochparterre), 2009, image: Tensta Konsthall

Curated by Adnan Yildiz with the assistance of Kim Einarsson of Konsthall C, “The Collective Coral Colony” is inspired by Alfred Döblin’s historical novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, initially published in 1929 then later made for television and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; this work serves as a launch pad for contemporary analysis of five chosen artists’ relationship with both their respective cities and the notion of a collective insight. More »

Viktor Rosdahl, Ein, Zwei, Drei

Viktor Rosdahl
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 »