Jacquelyn Davis

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  picks July 02, 2017

  Klas Eriksson

  Swedish artist Klas Eriksson has developed a practice rooted in examining subcultures via works in public spaces and spontaneous performances. With an interest in how power flows and how crowds function, the artist attempts to unpack sociopolitical dynamics using playful tactics. This show raises the question: Who belongs in a gallery or institution, and how do these entities influence artists given “free rein” of such spaces?

  For the paintings in “Smoke on Smoke,” 2015, smoke bombs were used to infuse color into canvas; the series is a variant of Eriksson’s site-specific performance pieces in

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  picks March 23, 2017

  Leontine Arvidsson

  Leontine Arvidsson’s second solo exhibition at this gallery emphasizes the actions of overlapping and layering, as opposed to erasing or rejecting, to create successful works. Failure here is viewed as either an obsolete or merely subjective idea. Most of the pieces displayed have a quality that leaves one feeling as if they are in the midst of construction or a process that slowly morphs with quiet tenacity. In times like these, the means prove to be more significant than the ends, since resistance is often effected through incremental gestures and decisions that compile over time.

  Her new

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  picks February 08, 2017

  Lovisa Ringborg

  In Lovisa Ringborg’s second exhibition at this gallery, the artist upholds the argument that displaying a set of harmonious works can be more potent than a plethora of free-floating entities. Showing nine C-prints of varying dimensions, Ringborg infuses the works with an entrancing mood of eerie denouement: Visitors may feel as if they arrived too late for a significant event, ending up instead engulfed in the isolation that follows an abandoned exploit. The photographer convinces viewers to enter a slippery world highlighting dreams and speculation. Nesting (all works 2017) emphasizes Ringborg’s

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  picks September 07, 2016

  Ulf Rollof

  Sequestered above the restaurant Nosh & Chow in Stockholm (designed by Barcelona-based Lázaro Rosa-Violán), renowned Swedish artist Ulf Rollof's current solo exhibition is the last installment in a trilogy that began in Mexico City. Yet these works were prepared in Ventura, California, where he now resides. A multifaceted creator, Rollof seamlessly glides between three distinct mediums—painting, glass, and paper. With a history of highlighting both the conditional and the existential while aspiring to be universally accessible, the artist now bombards his audience with stirring pieces—confirming

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  picks August 09, 2016

  “Personal”

  Differentiating between public and private spheres can be challenging. This group exhibition focuses on how one might successfully share a subjective experience when most individuals are conditioned to distance themselves from others. All four artists in the show experiment with documentary formats, spanning installation, video, painting, and cinematic offshoots. It is easy to oversimplify an observed experience in social media, where an influx of sensationalist explosions and a saturation of stimuli push one to absorb information. This show slows down processing and considers one human factor

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  picks May 12, 2016

  Christine Ödlund

  In a delicate fusion of scientific experimentation, metaphysics, and exchange between human beings and plants, Swedish artist Christine Ödlund provides an enchanting display of paintings, drawings, videos, and an organic installation that entices viewers to reconsider their relationships with both secular and spiritual realms. The exhibition positions her recent works against a backdrop of more recognizable pieces and emphasizes an open-ended discourse between speculation and knowledge, science and art. Its phantasmagorical qualities are conducive to expanding one’s perspective across these

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  picks December 19, 2015

  Olafur Eliasson

  Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition “Reality Machines” serves as both a retrospective, including almost twenty key pieces from across his career, and a successful display of the modernist cohesion between art, architecture, and design. It is useful to consider the works here as discrete objects and then create an overarching narrative where multiple works relate to one another. The artist places significant responsibility on the viewer to determine the works’ individual and collective meaning.

  This show is motion-oriented and keenly engineered to focus on human beings’ spontaneous,

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  picks September 10, 2015

  Camilla Løw

  In Norwegian artist Camilla Løw’s fourth solo exhibition, “Nerves and Muscles,” the sculptures appear to be playful jaunts, but they are quite sophisticated in terms of their placement and distinct design. The simplest impression is not always synonymous with the easiest or less complex of choices, rather it’s the less visually complex path that often harbors deeper meaning otherwise undetected. There is a peculiar triad of creative directions present in this show: One trajectory involves towerlike beams that either are white-washed or incorporate vibrant colors, as in Synthetic (all works 2015).

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  picks May 29, 2015

  “Young Pioneers”

  A group exhibition curated by Elisabeth Byre, “Young Pioneers” exhibits a diverse array of new art from Oslo-based artists who reinforce the notion that the progressive city demands more attention in the face of being usurped in international standing by others cities that are equally forward-thinking and conscientious. In conjunction with Oslo’s multiple current initiatives revolving around brand-management strategies, the Kunsthall and other organizations have been invited to collectively respond by showcasing the city’s emerging and fresh talent of tomorrow.

  The works presented in the exhibition

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  picks February 28, 2015

  Ofer Wolberger

  Ofer Wolberger’s first exhibition in Scandinavia, titled “Nein,” displays works ripe from the artist’s teenage inexperience. Wolberger refuses to show any signs of an original gesture with this collection of paintings, for one of which he appropriates the titular image of Dopey, 2015. The singular, doe-eyed cartoon dwarf is borrowed both from Walt Disney’s and Adolf Hitler’s supposed sketches of the character—as the press release states—emphasizing the difficulty of verifying an image’s origin, as well as the murky ethics of some creativity. The paintings appear childish and playful, as in the

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  picks January 15, 2015

  “The Alien Within”

  “The Alien Within” concerns a complex dialogue around how Western society’s structure is influenced by fear as a normative factor. Emphasizing an unstable European political climate, it raises specific questions such as whether creatives are now expected to tackle sociopolitical issues directly or how fear and paranoia exist in growing multicultural sites, such as Malmö, in part due to fluctuating demographics.
  The exhibition includes works such as Christoph Schlingensief’s Animatograph—Iceland-Edition. (House of Parliament/House of Obsession) Destroy Thingvellir, 2005, a multimedia installation
  

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  picks October 02, 2014

  “Corpus”