Introducing incredible work by Mamma Andersson & Judit Kristensen
2 extraordinary Swedish artists with exhibitions in Paris and Antwerp
I started writing this piece for the blog last week and was also planning on posting it then. However, 3 Swedish tourists were shot in Brussels last week of which two of them unfortunately died. I immediately felt that posting the article that week, celebrating 2 Swedish artists, would be wrong. However, taking into account the terrible event, I am posting it now because it would be such a pity if people missed out on these two incredible exhibitions and artists.
Mamma Andersson (b.1962) - David Zwirner
Mamma Andersson is already a prominent figure in the art world. She earned her nickname 'mamma' at school when there was another girl named Karin in her class. She grew up near the Polar Circle, and this influence is evident in her work, with the snow-white landscapes and the quiet, eerie, almost magical undertone.
In her new exhibition, the two works below really caught my attention. I love the way how she plays with “indoor landscapes”. In the work on the left, the interior walls of an unknown space are covered with wallpaper featuring colorful fields and snow-covered mountain peaks. It's almost as if that space doesn't seem so artificial, and you're strolling through the corridors of nature. The work sparks my imagination with the discarded 'lifeless' objects on the ground, along with the mysterious reflection of a mirror from an open door on the right (or maybe it's a painting?).
In the other painting, we find ourselves indoors again, but once more, it doesn't feel that way: the carpet as a field of flowers, the oak wall as the trunk of a tree to which the painting leans peacefully. It all feels like the backdrop of the calm and unsettling deathbed of the rabbit. The end is near...
Where and when can you visit? In Paris until Saturday the 18th of November!
Judit Kristensen (b.1990) - Plus-One Gallery
From the international Paris+ last week (plus meaning more in French) to the local Plus-One Gallery in Antwerp. And I just can’t get enough from Judit Kristensen!
Plus please!
Judit moved to Antwerp in October 2022. We first met at a duo exhibition in the beginning of 2023 in gallery Ponti. I almost accidently fell over one of her moving (beautifully crafted) cockroaches that were moving around the gallery space. They crept me out, but I was also incredibly fascinated by them. And that adoration for her enigmatic work continues until this day. I’ll highlight the artwork where the exhibition starts.
There is a dark undertone in Kristensen’s work, an apparent eeriness (the quality of being strange in a frightening and mysterious way). This magnificent work is both in composition and execution incredibly smart. The work is inspired by Edvard Munch, Dødskamp (1915).
The figures gaze emotionlessly into the distance; they are friends of the artist. They don't seem moved by the fire slowly spreading. They stand together, but they’re absent and not connected to each other.
Kristensen explains that we easily get caught up in the emptiness of capitalism, chasing something that’s meaningless and that does not fulfill us. We’re copying what everyone else is doing just to ‘fit in’. And it’s a trap. Because what do you end up with? You end up feeling empty, deprived and not in touch with what actually fuels you. Food for thought…
Where and when can you visit? In Antwerp until Sunday the 19th of November!
Several other works in the exhibition:
