Market Art Fair

On Sunday I went to see Market Art Fair at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. 39 galleries from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland were participating. The airy white rooms of the Royal Academy are very good for showcasing art and it was very evident that those galleries know how to display art.

I very much liked Cajsa von Zeipel's sculptures. Johannes Nyholm's short movie Las Palmas made me laugh - it's just so fresh and direct. Here you can see the trailer.

Omid Dalefrouz Selfportrait (diptych). [you can see the artist in the reflction in the sunglasses]

Omid Dalefrouz Selfportrait (diptych)

Foregroound: Cajsa von Zeipel Second Best

Cajsa von Zeipel Blue Steel (close up)

Johannes Nyholm Las Palmas (short movie).

Päivi Takala's art grew on me in its simplicity

Maria Friberg Belongings

Supermarket Art Fair

I spent the weekend in Stockholm visiting the two Art Fairs Supermarket (artist-run galleries - not commercial) and Market (the leading Nordic galleries - commercial). Even though I somehow wish it wasn't like that ... I found the last one much more interesting.

Supermarket

So: on Saturday I visited Supermarket which is focusing on Artist-run galleries regularly staging public exhibitions in their own exhibition spaces and other artists' initiatives. The fair presented 70 artists' initiatives from 26 countries.

There were some very obvious protests against the commercialism in the art market (surprise!), performances and installations, some things that made me smile - and of course some good art. The main problem, as I see it with these kind of fairs, is very often that too much is squeezed in - and in small cubicles in a maze. Too much impressions. Art that demands a little more concentration will be lost. It's not for nothing that "the white cube" concept works well for much art. Or maybe so many impressions and fragments work for the zapping generation? [I don't think I belong there]. Anyway I thought everything looked so much more interesting and appealing when I looked in the exhibition catalogue afterwards...
Anna Linderstam (we studied art history together).
Nationalgalleriet - all about sausage (humour is never wrong)
a playful paper pigeon in the staircase (DKTUS)
the Art in Candyland's stand I might have appreciated in another context
Andreas Korsar showed some wooden sculptures next to his drawings (Galleri Box)

Tomorrow I'll post some photos from Market.

some results

I've posted glimpses of this painting before - now it is finished.

Wednesday in the studio

Not much more happening than this today.

But last week I was asked if I wanted to go to Glasgow for three days (all expenses paid) on an artist exchange project. Unfortunately I had to say no ... as I had other things booked that couldn't be rescheduled.

dreaming of spring

I's getting lighter, but it is still really cold. February is always the hardest month for me. I long for proper spring.  So yesterday I bought myself a tulip and then I booked 5 days in May in one of the guest studios at the Watercolour Museum in Skärhamn. (If you follow the link you'll see the brownish guest studios in the foreground in the photo of the museum.) I'll spoil myself rotten - good food and wine - and paint like crazy those days ... 

I'm having intense and very concentrated days in the studio now. Today 9 hours - which of course is an exception as I have a kid.

Art as Business: on a break

Here we go; 2011 – a new year. (Ok, it’s already mid February but we shouldn’t get obsessed with details, should we?)

I'm happy to say that things have been working according to plans; I've already managed to secure enough incomes for 2011 (commissions, workshops, guest teaching, wall painting project within creative school - and in addition I'll get some money for selling my art of course)! A new achievement is that I will give a screenprinting workshop at HDK (school of design and crafts) in spring and probably also give a summer course for them (teaching art at University level has been one of my goals for 2011). And I get more or less get 6 months of concentrated studio time to work on my own stuff (January and February has been two of the months). [for anyone new to this blog - I don't have any other job]

BUT - as you might have noticed I've stopped writing my Art as Business posts. I must admit I've totally lost all my motivation (I still do all the list writing and giving myself tasks, but I don't feel like writing about it), especially now when I'm trying to concentrate on painting. I overdid it with administration, coordinating and editing in autumn and kind of developed an aversion against writing structured text. My Art as Business Interview series will continue though.

bloody serious

work in progress, detail

In five weeks I'll have my next separate exhibition and up till today I hadn't come up with the exhibition title. Today it came to me - "Bloody Serious". 

But I can't really judge if I'm serious about it, and if I am - if it works. I'll think about it some more days.

my studio in sun light

This might have been what it looked like in my studio today. But I don't know for sure as I was at home all day (kid still home from preschool).

new works by Various & Gould and more here

calendar and cycles

Pintameldia's calendar for 2011 and a close up of one of my favourite girls inside it As a surprise gift I got Esti's calendar in the mail the other day. I love it Esti, Thanks! I'm home with a feverish son these days, as I tend to be this time of the year. Life goes in cycles and it becomes even more evident when you can check what happened last year by reading your own blog posts. Not only do I seem to be struggling with making new paintings in January/February - I seem to be utterly surprised that someone, like every year, interrupts my creative studio days (feverish son). What is really encouraging though - if I follow the same pattern - is that I will get the flow and make a number of good art pieces in the end of this month.

a brighter day

I might be seeing the light in the end of the tunnel.

I enjoyed reading how some of you handle creative blocks. Thanks!

how to get over that block?

For almost three weeks I've been trying to make some new paintings. I wanted to renew myself. But I haven't made any masterpiece - "au contriare". I've tried working in a different way with watercolour (spraypaint and sponge), pored black ink hoping for happy accidents - and topped it by making the worst kitsch painting ever (no, I won't show it).

Frustration.
Crisis.

Took some time to think today. Realized I've been forgetting that the concept actually is vital for me in my working process - and has always been. Why did I focus on the material? (Important, but not my starting point). Now I'm hoping for a turning point in the studio tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

book ready

Last week the book we made within the Art Project Bortom Orden [Beyond Words] - about the quality concept within fine art - came back from the printer. Cecilia has done a marvellous job with the graphic design! It feels good that yet another project is finished (I was the editor)

Lysekils Konsthall: "Under Ytan"

The day of the opening of my exhibition "Under Ytan" (=under the surface) at Lysekil Konsthall was a wonderful sunny day. I had gotten full page articles in both local papers (Lysekils posten and Bohuslänningen) and the couple hosting the gallery was absolutely sweet. Saturday was a good day!

Opening

Welcome to the Opening of my exhibition

LYSEKILS KONSTHALL
Saturday 12:00-15:00


the exhibition is on until the 12 of February

like pointillism

I really like the way my paintings look through bubble wrap. Tomorrow I'll go to Lysekil to hang my exhibition at Lysekil Konsthall.

The Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg is from Lysekil (she was awarded the Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale in 2009). Here yo can see a short clip from one of her stop-motion animations.

screen printing workshop

I'm going to teach two workshops in screen printing at KKV this spring. There are also other interesting workshops in: textile printing,  colour on glass (spray painting and screen printing), cutting plotter and enamel. I've just update KKV's website with the program.

busy busy days this week, so I might be less present here.

getting the size

Time is elusive. I thought I had eons of time this spring for just working on "my own art". But it turns out that now I have only four weeks until I'll have to start working on the execution of my big commissioned art piece (of course it is my art - but a commission is never the same as when you work more freely just for yourself). I intend to enjoy these four weeks fully.

I've booked the big project room at KKV from the 21st of February (much bigger than my studio). Yesterday I quickly magnified part of my sketch to see it in real size. I knew it was big, but size is always more impressing in reality than in your mind...

how much to reveal?

In my current creative angst - hoping to go somewhere a bit new - I don't know how much I want to reveal of my creative process. I might just end up where I've been before - or I'll might get into that blissful flow. Afterwards I can show you what has been, but for now I'm just sharing a drawing - from June - of Snow White revealing a breast.

I really like The Post Family's series of studio tours

continuing but not pleased

I'm in the process of looking for a different approach in my painting, to renew myself, to improve. It's a struggle, but I don't dislike it. I need a crisis, a block, to get out of my comfort zone. Cecilia is having a great give-away where you can win not only Letraset markers, but some of Cecilia's trays and prints. I'm hoping to win, but I am seldom a lucky girl.

hanging around

There is always a photo opportunity at KKV (Artists' Collective Workshops).
Have a nice weekend!

painting again

I began 3 new paintings today.

happy face

I had saved this photo (street art from November) for a rainy day. It's not literary raining today, but anyway.

after image

My exhibition at Mimer's Konsthall is now over. Next exhibition will be January 29 at Lysekil Konsthall and without any Snow whites.

Today I feel as perky as this apple; I got a fever and just learned that a course I was supposed to teach won't happen because of withdrawn governmental funding.(not the one I wrote about last week)

But, as it says on my studio door: Don't Whine - Do Something!  So I will. (curse and swear)

First week 2011 - check!

This week I got the three big screen printing frames I ordered before Christmas plan what to exhibit in 3 weeks and order some more framing finish sketches for a minor commission finish my bookkeeping for 2010.  YES! YES! plan a summer course suggestion with budget

My very first proper Studio day in 2011 didn't result in any major master piece,  but there are still 360 days to go...  Book by its Cover is going to publish Drawn in - a book featuring artist's sketchbooks and interviews (with among others my friend Camilla Engman). Of Fishes and Birds has a new exhibition in Utrecht. For you who can read Dutch.

poster art

I borrowed some good books about early Poster Art (advertising actually) and Russian Avant Garde (1910-1934) doing some research for a course I might be teaching this summer (cross your fingers!)

starting 2011

This morning it was pit dark when the alarm clock woke us. It was cold and slippery when I went for my morning run. But I felt happy anyway; starting afresh is always great.

I went to my studio and checked that my plants were still alive, fiddled a bit, went to my frame maker to frame some paintings for my upcoming exhibition (we had a long chat and I got to know him even better), bought some art supplies and did some paper works. This week will probably be mostly preparations, research and administration (bookkeeping!), but next week I'll start some serious studio time - I've so been looking forward to it!

During my vacation I made myself this little box for my new bookbinding supplies following the instructions from Books, Boxes and Portfolios - Binding, Construction and Design Step-by-Step by Franz Zeier (great book). I really enjoyed it! I feel that maybe making a lot of boxes and portfolios could be the way for me to solve my chaos with papers and little things?