Anette H Flensburg, Framing the Boundless

Umeå, 2.9–8.10  2010

Our first exhibition this season at Galleri Andersson/Sandström, Umeå, is “Framing the Boundless” by Anette H. Flensburg. The exhibition is a continuation of the solo show “Walls of Paper”, held at Galleri Andersson/Sandstrom in Stockholm in 2008.

The motifs in Flensburg last series “Framing the Boundless” is, as before, paper models of rooms, with a fragile and temporary character reflected in the paintings. Mirroring walls and floors further reflect the room itself, which then becomes distorted, turning into organic forms with a life of their own. A suggestive and romantic atmosphere is hovering over the paintings, as if related to classical Renaissance painting. The box-like rooms and draped fabrics, which partially cover and shield off, present the images with a stroke of dreamlike tableaux scenes, but contrary to the theater, no actors are playing here. Only the dolls of the costume designer or possibly a chair are populating the seemingly quiet and tranquil rooms.

Anette H. Flensburg says: “My paintings are a paradoxical attempt to hold on to something limitless, a declaration of the impossible. It is an attempt to create an image within a small space, which generates other images, much similar to the first frame within a dream. One single opportunity, which brings memories to life, as long as you, the spectator, openly embrace the pictorial flow.”

Anette H. Flensburg, born 1961, is a former student of the art and design school in Kolding, Denmark. In later years she has been acclaimed as one of Scandinavia’s leading painters and in 2004 she was the second prize winner of the Carnegie Art Award. In 2008 she was re-nominated for the same award.