Awareness is the buzzword for art lovers during Stockholm’s warmest weeks this year…
…of how others see us… of how what is within us affects the external… of the impact that makes on a place and its condition… of how art brings to mind all we hold so dear to our very essence…
…of how we see history layering an artwork… of how art fuels our current interest in the persistent past through our lenses fixed in the ever present…
… and of not the very least, of the very real and the equally actual imagined!
Exhibition: Here’s Looking at You
Artists: Mario Ayala, Cheyenne Julien, Linda Pedersen, Francine Spiegel & Geetha Thurairajah
Where: LOYAL, Kammakargatan 68
When: Till 15 July
A group exhibition exploring five different perspectives on being observed versus being the observer, it brings together the work of five artists from New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Stockholm to explore the power of the subject-object relationship in terms of observation, examination and reflection on how you are seen and perceived by others and the awareness it creates within you.
Exhibition: Ruins of tomorrow
Artist: Kristoffer Zetterstrand
Where: Stene Projects Gallery, Brunnsgatan 21B
When: Till 8 July
Shadows play an important role in Kristoffer Zetterstrand’s latest works; with the sun’s position determining its direction and length in each painting; presenting us with a distinct idea of time and location of our position in relation to the sun at sunset or sunrise. The shadows further present us with a conception of depth, varying from motive to motive. In “The View III” the landscape occurs as a two-dimensional backdrop, whereas it appears endless in “The Seamstress”.
By digitally 3D-modelling vast landscapes from old paintings Zetterstrand changes the time and weather in the motives as he chooses. In these temporalized environments he posits disparate objects, people and animals, ultimately creating dream-like scenarios. Each of these virtual still life scenes is then transferred back onto a canvas.
At the same time, the notion of both time and place is dissolved by the paintings’ surrealistic motives. Containing fragments of images from different periods of time, they are filled with references to art history as well as contemporary elements like the graffiti in “The Steps”. The soft brush strokes and subtle use of nuances enhance the feeling of illusion evoked by the collages. The outcome is dramatic, almost theatrical. By building his own worlds – constructing, changing and demolishing static works of art – Zetterstrand brings life into the history of painting.
Exhibition: Rooms with Gravitation
Artist: Anja Notini
Where: Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde Prins Eugens väg 6, Djurgården
When: Till 24 September
In the extensive selection of large paintings, heavy reliefs and powerful sculptures by artist, photographer and author Anja Notini from her studio in Solvik in Saltsjö-Boo, she follows the changing seasons; drawing inspiration from nature and the many nuances of the garden’s vegetation.
Notini’s selection of paintings from the last twenty years is placed next to several of her ceramic objects and sculptures in iron and wood to unite the soft sensuality of color and shape with the expression of distance and strength, as mediated by a number of powerful sculptural objects with chains of iron.
Her love for poetry and literature is of great importance as well. Notini shares, “Sometimes I let me just sink into the wonderful songs and find paintings that I think go together with the lyrics. Other times, the finished paintings lead me to the lyrics.”
Exhibition, Artist & Where: EVA HILD AT DJURGÅRDEN
When: Till 31 August
Curated by GALLERI ANDERSSON/SANDSTRÖM, Eva Hild’s large hand-built sculptures are bodies exposed to pressure and movements. Influence, pressure and strain are conveyed; all delicate continuously flowing entities in thin-built clay consequentially evoking how perception of inner and outer space is changed or challenged.
On one hand, it is the mass in thin layers, running in a meander-like closed movement. On the other hand it is the empty space, air and light forming volumes, described by the contours of mass. The construction is really made of the absent, the emptiness and the holes of air. The obvious body just defines the volume.
The relationship between internal and external realities is thus a dualism between content and form, feeling and shape, and impression and expression as well; reflecting her inner landscapes of form, and the everyday tension between the presence and absence she experiences.
Exhibition: ANOTHER SIDE OF THE SHIFT
Where: Bonniers konsthall, Torsgatan 19
When: Till 20 August
At the end of the 1980s, a shift took place on the Swedish art scene. The art and artists having dominated the stage for quite some time were forced to take a step back with the arrival of postmodernism, which ushered in a wave of new ideas. Now the time is again right to view the arrival of constructivism in 1947 to the postmodern shift in 1987 from a new perspective.
At this summer’s exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall, experience the autumn of 1987 – when the new postmodern perspective challenged well-established concepts – altering the art world and the critical landscape. This was a battle of legitimacy and interpretive benchmarks – not least of all regarding which art was the most relevant of the time, and the possibility of working as an artist or a critic.
The situation provoked simplified descriptions from both camps, and winners and losers remained on the battlefield. Defined by its opponents, art from the post-war modernist period was sidelined. Alternative expressions and ideals, as well as new players, came to characterise the artistic scene over the following decades.
And then consider this: the current art scene is a different place, and an interest in the past has been awakened. Just how did contemporary art really look before postmodernism hit the scene? What were the burning issues and desires of the day? And who were the trend-setting artists?
Where: Galerie Forsblom, Karlavägen 9
When: Till 12 August
(A) Exhibition & Artist: Not Vital
Not Vital’s conceptual sculptures skirt the shifting borderland between dream and reality. His three-dimensional pieces, created in close collaboration with artisans as well as engineers, are an amalgamation of architecture and sculpture. Taking a keen interest in anthropology, Vital is an avid traveler whose work integrates natural elements and expresses respect for local cultures.
(B) Exhibition: Som spön
Artist: Jenny Carlsson
Jenny Carlsson’s paintings move in an underwood. They describe dense vegetation where rapid and fiery but meticulously placed brushstrokes form twigs, tufts and thickets. With intuition and composition she uses a swarm of picturesque events to construct a dissolved order, rendering her paintings a description of a condition as much as a place.
(C) Exhibition: Misty Mountain Quartet / Moon River / The Arctic Ocean
Artist: Helena Blomqvist
In Helena Blomqvist’s photographs a staged reality intertwines with dreamlike scenarios and mythical storytelling. Being the largest commission for public art in modern Sweden, her three works at Galerie Forsblom are part of that slated for the new Karolinska University Hospital.
Exhibition & Artist: Anders Zorn
Where: Sven-Harrys konstmuseum, Eastmansvägen 10-12
When: Till 13 August
In cooperation with the Zorn Museum in Mora and private collectors, Sven-Harry’s Art Museum is proud to present an exhibition with rarely seen photography, sculpture, watercolors, small sketchbooks, etchings and oil paintings by Anders Zorn.
Although nearly a century has gone by since Zorn has passed away, his outstanding oeuvre feels as relevant today as it was during his lifetime. A Painters’ Painter, Zorn created art from what he saw; all equally powerful and sensual, serious and voluptuous, quotidian and exclusive; all done seemingly without effort.
Exhibition & Artist: Edvard Munch
Where: Thielska Galleriet, Sjötullsbacken 8
When: Till 27 August
The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm has lent graphic works by Edvard Munch to Thiel Gallery to complement the gallery’s own Munch collection – one of the largest outside Norway – with this summer’s emphasis on paintings from the years 1905 to 1907, when its patron Ernest Thiel had supported the artist most intensely.
“We are very pleased to partner with Thiel Gallery,” said Ambassador Christian Syse. “As we renovate our own embassy, [we take] this golden opportunity to let Munch’s works reach a larger audience for a few months.”
“We get the opportunity to show our audience more of the artist’s experimental work with woodcuts in color, but also color lithographs from the 1910s and 20s, a little later period which is not represented in our collection,” says Thiel Gallery’s director Patrik Steorn.
Edvard Munch portrayed not only his own emotional experience but was also sensitive to political developments in society; as exemplified in “Färglitografin Neutralia of 1915”, where he captured Norway’s complicated situation during the First World War – of on the one hand defending its neutrality and of on the other hand maintaining its position as the leading trading and seafaring nation.
Information and photo credits: The respective galleries and artists
