Lars Nilsson, “Ghosts”
Stockholm, 8.10–8.11 2014
Galleri Andersson / Sandström is proud to present a new solo exhibition by Lars Nilsson. Known to both provoke and intrigue, Lars Nilsson has for the last decades made out his distinct mark on the Swedish art scene. Through painting, sculpture, video, photography and installations he continuously explores the human coding: our impulses, intentions and inner darkness. More recently he has moved closer to the big questions of life in pieces laden with suggestive revelations.
The exhibition Ghosts consist of a sculpture group of 8 pieces, all new works by the artist. One of the sculptures, a man on his way out of the earth, created attention in April 2014 when Galleri Andersson / Sandström presented the work at the art fair Market. Now it will be shown in its entirety for the first time in an exhibition that balances on the boundary between life and death, reality and fantasy.
“Superficially Ghosts is a classical sculpture exhibition. But on a second look, the figures are in a state of transformation, dead matter becomes life or vice versa – as ghosts, It’s a mixture of Rodinesque post impressionism, Edward Gorey’s pin drawings and horror movies.”
Lars Nilsson has worked with the sculptural representation of the body in various ways since the early 1990s. In the merge of the timeless clay and the modern forms in casting, different idioms are combined in the same figure. In a spell of all things transience, time and place are mixed together. For many years Lars Nilsson worked in an idea driven approach, but experiencing Ghosts is a more intuitive play, a dream in which each element holds its embedded narrative and a vacuum between development and impermanence occurs. The sculptures are involved in a game between the destructive and vulnerable, at times weightless hovering and at others heavily pulled down. Twisted humor neighbors deadly seriousness. The sculptures carries their own stories while overall creating a highly charged scene.
“In quite a few years, I have sought the feeling of a kind of “time warp” in my art where the contemporary have been mixed with baroque or surrealism. In this exhibition, I feel like I’m stepping in or out of time. As would a ghost perhaps.”
Lars Nilsson, born 1956, lives and work in Stockholm. His artistic methods include painting, sculpture, video, and spatial installation. Among the more extensive solo exhibitions, we find venues such as Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen. Exhibitions at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, PS1 Museum in New York, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and biennials in Venice, Moscow and Seville are also worth mentioning. Lars Nilsson is a fine arts professor, positioned at the Malmö Art Academy during the years 1995 – 2006. 2003 Lars Nilssons was awarded The Moderna Museet Sculpture Award.
Galleri Andersson/Sandström has an ongoing collaboration with Lars Nilsson. Ghosts is his second solo exhibition with the gallery