Group Exhibition, “New Dimensions”

Umeå, 6.7–8.22 2014

Sju konstnärer tänker 3D – Sveriges Radio 140620 (in Swedish only)

In collaboration with Umeå2014, Galleri Andersson/Sandström presents a unique summer exhibition completely dedicated to sculpture, an art genre that has become the hallmark of the gallery. Seven female artists present works whose various techniques and themes demonstrates how multifaceted sculpture is today.

One of the most outstanding changes during the vivid early nineties on the Swedish art scene was the blurring out of art categorization. The different art genres expressions started approaching and rubbing off on each other. Now, 20 years later, the exhibition New Dimensions charges to challenge the boundaries further. Seven Swedish artists, known for their work within other forms than sculpture, have been invited to present work in three-dimensional form. What happens when an artist used to working in two dimensions is asked to present themselves in three? The result is a comprehensive exhibition where both approach, materials and the artistic content differs significantly between the artists.

Cecilia Edefalk, one of Sweden’s most renowned artists, has over the years worked across different genres and techniques. The bronze sculptures Birches I-II are both a process of mourning and an homage to a beautiful weeping birch that grew outside the artist’s studio that is not longer there. The grief over a loss and the longing for greenery outside a window is also present in Anneè Olofsson’s sculpture, made of a permanently folded deckchair. Olofsson’s work has a strong nerve and the title, Until tomorrow does not always come, reminds us not to take summer, or each other, for granted.

Tove Kjellmark challenges our perception and understanding of reality by creating a conflict between intellect and emotion. In her work The Uncanny Moment, Kjellmark has filled a glass tank with more than one hundred skinned mechanical toy animals, whose choreographed movements portray a controlled chaos. Set against a gentle but claustrophobic video where a lone naked woman’s body is curled up in the same tight glass container, her empathy provoking aesthetics combined with dark humor explores man’s relationship with machines and what we perceive as mechanical life.

Emma Hartman makes her debut as a sculptor, and chooses to incorporate her main focus, painting. The premise of the work in Laid is colors relationship to nature and light, heat and cold. In four metal plates featured on wall and floor, the endless rooms known from her paintings, suddenly gets further dimensions. The same goes for Astrid Svangren’s piece, known for her work with paintings in the expanded field. Her language is poetic, physical, sensual and imbued with movement and in Twist / Swirl / Not Long / But Infinite her paintings finds a way into the room. The works are framed by different wooden stands in which she presents a number of different materials and explores what occurs in the encounter between them.

Both Astrid Sylwan’s and Sigrid Sandström’s sculptures are directly related to their physical models. The relationship between the hidden and the visible is central to Sigrid Sandström’s painting. By casting the mold of an existing painting, she recreates its front and back using a different material, jesmonite. The result is two freestanding sculptures, Split Version, that transform the physical painting to an imaginary object. Astrid Sylwan presents three organic black paginated bronze sculptures, Flora I – III, which could all have been sprung from one of her paintings. With the same vitality that is found in her paintings, are here available in three-dimensional form. Accepting this challenge, she immediately started working in clay, man’s most basic material.

Since 1994 Galleri Andersson/Sandström has been artistic director of the Baltic group projects Umedalen Sculpture. Together they have created a sculpture park of world class – Umedalen Sculpture Park. The exhibition New Dimensions at the gallery, which is located in the park, comments on the monumental works outside, while reinforcing and illuminating extension of the park in a smaller format. For visitors indoors and outdoors, it’s clear that an interaction between the sculptures is an undeniable enrichment.