As no two persons ever have the exact same experiences in their journey through life, our world has people who see what happens before them in their own uniquely contemplative way.
Will you idolize the nakedness of an unborn child? …of young men unconscious of being exposed to the gaze of others? …of walls bearing tales of men who had put them there? …of the forces of nature? …of the impact of time?
Do you share that our activities limit the ways homes can be built? …our imagination limits zinc’s use in crafting jewellery? …limiting art’s reach to dimensions of the inexplicable too?
Are you equally compelled to resist against the perceived injustice of our times? …to find inspiration in boredom? …in damage and even self damage? …to craft alternative existence and realities?
What propels you? : The positives? …or the negatives?
Exhibition: PETER DAHL’S WORLDS – EIGHT DECADES OF STRUGGLE FOR REALITY
Where: Sven-Harrys konstmuseum, Eastmansvägen 10-12
When: 4 May to 19 August
In this retrospective, we follow the arts and the underlying momentum of one of Sweden’s leading and most renown contemporary artist – from 1940 and the war years to probably Peter Dahl’s last painting – a triple self-portrait in 2016.
From art political scandals to burleskerier and tavern scenes; from penetrating portraits to relationship dramas and illustrations of Fredman’s Epistles, Dahl’s motive has really always been the same since his teens: of baroque and living scenes.
“That his art has… met so many different reactions over the years, ranging from disgust and contempt to fascination and admiration, [was] due largely to the form he perpetuated consisting of a completely different world,” said son Christoffer Dahl, the exhibition’s curator.
Exhibition: Better Dimension
Artists: Edgar Cleijne & Ellen Gallagher
Where: Bonniers Konsthall, Torsgatan 19
When: 25 April to 3 June
American artist Ellen Gallagher creates image-based installations that invite us to reflect on an alternate historical writing and existence. In this exhibition, her three extensive film installations are collaboratively created with Dutch artist Edgar Cleijne.
Her “Highway Gothic” illustrates how infrastructure is used to demarcate community classes. Based on the US Highway Interstate 10 in New Orleans, it consists of cyanotypes – an older copy method where blue-tinted photography is developed in direct sunlight – and 16 millimeters of film; with various parts produced in conjunction with artists participating in the Prospect New Orleans sculpture band to raise great social issues in a poetic and sublime way.
Exhibition: Domestication
Artist: IDUN BALTZERSEN
Where: Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Fredsgatan 12
When: Till 19 May
Stockholm-based Norwegian Idun Baltzersen works the cross-boundary, monumental and spatial with drawing and printmaking in various forms – on paper, textile and wood.
This exhibition mainly presents her woodcut works; with large plywood boards processed with knives and chisel for use as originals over which images are printed by hand on different types of fabrics on the studio floor.
These fabrics are then cut and reassembled into large textile collages for presentation with woodblocks painted to evoke the right expression and subsequently cut into three-dimensional sculptural collages.
A concept initially used to denote the taming and cultivation of animals and nature “Domestication” here describes external and internal demands to conform to prevailing social norms to raise questions about self-discipline, submission and control over our own body.
Using imagery of female heroes and martyrs, Baltzersen denotes how women are represented historically, in art and in popular culture from the perspective of her own life experiences and current discussions.
Exhibition: A Spicy Migraine Grease
Artist: ROSS TAYLOR
Where: CHRISTIAN LARSEN,
HUDIKSVALLSGATAN 8,
1st floor
When: Till 18 May
The studio is a swilling and churning dual sphere that supports production and consumption alongside one another. Everything that enters it is consumed, gnawed, singed and regurgitated, over and over. The paintings are its antimony, reclaimed and re-used.
Within the studio’s invisibility, there are not ‘practice’ or ‘method’ but only habits. Bad habits, good habits, paintings made from boredom, from damage, from self-damage and internal mutterings.
Exhibition: ART ET LIBERTÉ: RUPTURE, WAR AND SURREALISM IN EGYPT (1938–1948)
Where: Moderna Museet, Skeppsholmen
When: 28 April to 12 August
A surrealist collective of artists and writers working in Cairo, Art et Liberté provided a restless generation of young artists, intellectuals and political activists with a heterogeneous platform for cultural and political reform.
Founded in 1938, upon the publication of their manifesto “Long Live Degenerate Art” at the dawn of the Second World War and during Egypt’s colonial rule by the British Empire, Art et Liberté was globally engaged in resistance against fascism, nationalism and colonialism.
Art et Liberté played an active role within an international network of surrealist writers and artists; giving surrealism their own definition to achieve a contemporary literary and pictorial language that was as globally engaged as it was rooted in local artistic and political concerns.
Featuring more than 200 artworks and archival documents, the exhibition broadens our understanding of modernism at large by shedding new light on this largely unknown chapter of the surrealist movement.
Exhibition: EMOH
Artist: Cecilia Parsberg
Where: Svenska Konstnärernas Förening/Konstnärshuset, Smålandsgatan 7
When Till 13 May
EMOH consists of a series of un-shown non-conceptual photographic images selected from Cecilia Parsberg’s work over the course of the past seventeen years.
Often formulated around the existential, political and aesthetic to induce silent agreements regarding the images we share when living under similar conditions of both the outer and inner – of the mirrored and twisted realities and implications of a word such as EMOH | HOME.
Parsberg shares, “I walk through The House; chapter after chapter, room after room, hallway after hallway. Ceilings and walls are caving in inside the building. The House is a structure where lives are lived and arranged. Or is it life – living – that limits the activities and gives rise to the House? Lives that have been separated – by an imagined structure – can also be connected – by a lived structure – but not without hope of something else.”
Exhibition: IN MY WORLD
Artist: HELENA SANDSTRÖM
Where: Konsthantverkarna, Södermalmstorg 4
When: Till 2 May
Silversmith and jewellery artist, Helena Sandström’s interest in zinc as a working medium stems from her eagerness to explore its possibilities and limitations for both jewellery and larger objects.
With Japan as a major source of inspiration, this postgraduate fine art trained artist infuses her works with the land of the rising sun’s strong ties to nature and with origami; crafting pieces akin to the art of paper folding.
Exhibition: A Child is Born
Artist: Lennart Nilsson
Where: Stene Projects Gallery
Brunnsgatan 21b
When: Till 4 May
An exhibition that is a tribute to Lennart Nilsson (1922 to 2017) who began his career in photography in his late teens before moving on to work for the best photo magazines in Sweden and internationally.
His awards included two The World Press Photo “First Prize” in the science category, the Leica Medal of Excellence, the National Press Photographers Association “Picture of the Year” and three Emmy awards for his film work.
Exhibition: I N T E R I Ö R
Artist: Niklas Holmgren
Where: Domeij Gallery, Bragevägen 21
When: Till 5 May
It is about tenderness for the human form is never as naked as when exposed to the gaze of others. This frees Niklas Holmgren’s paintings of the body from inhibitions and the norm.
What is invisible is visible here. The young men; yet untouched by time; are un-affected by their inner selves. Sitting, lying, adrift in time and space, their presence weighs heavy in the room. Can a mirror preserve an image?
Exhibition:
Hic et Nunc
Artist: ROLF HANSON
Where: Galleri Andersson/Sandström, Hudiksvallsgatan 6
When:
Till 28 April
A key figure in Swedish art history and a painter per se his entire career since his beginnings in the early 1980s, Rolf Hanson’s inaugural exhibition comprises paintings from 2010 to date.
His work is known for its great artistic freedom as he uses unquestionable technical skills as well as a thorough carefulness while acting out a respectful disrespect for the various stylistic traditions and conventions of traditional painting.
Possessing an incomparable feeling for the interaction between color and form, light and shadow, his paintings have a certain weightiness and unity, force and vitality which are coupled with something intangible – something that reaches towards another dimension – a dimension of the inexplicable.
Rolf Hanson is never about convenience: he does not dwell on what is reliable or admired. He rather takes steps to ensure that he remains open and in a quest of new terrain, yet to be explored.
Exhibition: Wall Stories
Artist: ANNA Berglöf
Where: Galleri Eklund, Karlavägen 15
When: Till 28 April
Walls… some are destroyed, some will be built.
“During my trip to China, I could not visit the famous Great Wall of China. I decided instead to take a closer look [at] the walls [in] parts of the country that I visited. My fascination was great when I realized that many walls, even the most insignificant, had their own stories to tell. The stories have been created by man, the forces of nature and the passage of time. To catch [them] with the camera is my way to catch the wall’s history and pass it on,” shares Anna Berglöf.
Photo and information credits: The respective galleries.
