May 3 - June 21, 2013
Opening reception Thursday May 2nd, 7-9 pm
 
Galleri Riis has the pleasure of presenting our fourth exhibition with Arne Malmedal (f. 1937), consisting of seven new large-scale paintings from 2012 - 2013. In contrast to his previous exhibitions in the gallery, wherein the paintings have been serial – either due to a limited palette or to a recurring motif – the new works are more individual in their expression. Spanning from minimal colour-field paintings via expressive compositions inducing associations to natural lyricism, to mental spaces of vast illusional depth. The use of e.g. paint rollers gives these new paintings an opulent texture, yielding a tangible and vigorous presence.
 
Arne Malmedal was educated at the National College of Art and Design, Oslo (1956-60), and held his first solo-show in 1963. Alongside a regular exhibition activity, he has been a vital figure on the Norwegian art scene. Founder and head of the department of Graphic Art in the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo in the 1970s, and as Administrative Director at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo in the 1980s, where he contributed to the realization and introduction of important exhibitions and artists to the Norwegian audience. Malmedal was honored with a retrospective exhibition in the National Museum of Art (Oslo) in 2003 and stands today as a Nestor in the Norwegian artistic community. Since 2007 he has frequently exhibited in Galleri Riis.
 
Parallel to the exhibition in Galleri Riis, Malmedal is showing in Kunstnerforbundet (Oslo) a series of paintings from 1990-94, a group of works that initiated his ongoing engagement with monochrome painting. The opening reception in Kunstnerforbundet will take place on May 2nd 6-8 pm and the exhibition lasts until the 2nd of June.

May 3 - ­June 21, 2013
Opening reception Thursday May 2, 7-9 pm
 
We have the pleasure of presenting our seventh exhibition with the Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson (b. 1975). The exhibition entitled Recur consists entirely of plaster reliefs, a relatively new addition to his already extensive artistic repertoire encompassing painting, photography, sculpture and tapestries, often exhibited intermixed and with the various media assembled in friezes. The ten smaller and medium sized reliefs - all recently produced - are the result of a process in which Eriksson “paints” with acetone on slabs of styrofoam. The corrosive fluid eats away the plastic material, creating a negative relief of brush strokes. The process being only partially controlled by the artist, thus creating a wide scope for chance in the reaction of the materials; the ensuing liberating force is welcomed and cultivated in his work. When the styrofoam is cast, the white plaster relief reveal the delineations of the brush strokes appearing as undulating landscapes covered in snow, rugged and mysterious.
 
The creation of these works relates to other parts of his artistic output; paintings of shadows projected from the outside world on the studio wall emerge from deep inside monochrome paintings, tapestries executed by weavers using details of his paintings as the point of departure, bronze cast of molehills in the fields and of birds forfeiting their lives colliding with the mirror illusion of the large studio windows. Eriksson consistently pursues new paths in his artistic practice, invariably conceptually cogent, yet with a keen visual sensitivity.
 
Andreas Eriksson received a MFA from the Academy of Arts in Stockholm (1993-1998). In 2012 he participated in the exhibitions “The Imminence of Poetics”, Sao Paulo biennale and “Pink Caviar”, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk and in 2011 he represented Sweden in the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion. One man shows this year have included Recur in Bror Hjorths Hus, Uppsala, Krux in Lidköping Konsthall and Landskap (till Kjarval) at Galleri Riis Stockholm, and currently the solo exhibition Coincidental Mapping at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. Andreas Eriksson lives and works at Kinnekulle in Västergötland, Sweden.

UKS (Unge kunstneres samfund) is delighted to present a solo exhibition by French/American
artist Antoine Catala at Lakkegata 55, Oslo. The exhibition features new work, including two large scale holograms, eight motorized images, four levitating sculptures and a print installation. The work continues the artist’s engagement with new media, the triadic relationship between language, image and object, and in this exhibition particularly, the image recognition software developed by online search engines.
Born in Toulouse, France in 1975, Antoine Catala began studying mathematics, but shifted his practice towards art after completing his degree. While a
fine arts student in London he received attention for organizing shows at a local Burger King. Since then he has partaken in several group shows in France, the US and the UK. “Image Families” is his most extensive solo presentation to present date.
Antoine Catala lives and works in New York. He has recently been selected for the Biennale de Lyon and will be showing at Art Basel: Statements with 47 Canal. Solo shows include Galerie Christine Meyer, Munich (2012); 47 Canal, New York (2012); AVA, New York (2010); 179 Canal, New York (2009); Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago (2009); Cooley Gallery, Portland (2009). A selection of recent group shows and events include Venus over Manhattah, New York (2012); Blum and Poe, Los Angeles (2012); Night Gallery,
Los Angeles (2012); Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm (2012); White Columns, New York (2011); NOMA Gallery, San Fransisco (2011) and Swiss Institute with Dan Graham and Harmony Korine, New York (2011).

Curator of Lydgalleriet [the Sound Gallery], Jørgen Larsson, has put together an exhibition of seven new sound-based pieces. NOR13 will take the pulse of kinetic and sound-based art in Norway today, with a group exhibition that will be the gallery’s first to focus on the Norwegian scene since 2009. Seven artists based in Norway have been asked to produce new pieces considering issues tied to recycling.
 
The background for the exhibition is our prolonged experience with the expenditure of resources in the art world. In producing an exhibition, large amounts of material and energy are spent on transport and travel, which may seem somewhat at odds with the often outspoken environmental concerns of artists and curators. The challenge presented to the artists invited by Lydgalleriet is both artistic and practical, in that as a much as possible of the art should utilise already extant materials/objects, and that as much as possible of the construction should be carried out with recycled materials. The work of the invited artists is already in line with this perspective, focussing on found objects and reuse.