Ai Weiwei - Chuti, 2015 - Bamboo and silk

We are excited to announce the opening of the Stockholm gallery with Tyre, an exhibition by the renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The viewer will encounter works that oscillate between the rich iconography of Chinese history, contemporary expressions, and artistic predecessors and collaborators. The exhibition, curated by the artist, does also mirror injustice as well as hope in contemporary society.

Conceptual Art, Minimalism and Zen Buddhism. Andy Warhol and the non-elitist expressions of pop art and the revolutionary aesthetics of Dadaism: in Ai Weiwei's art these elements converge at a core of political and social topics. From a prominent position in the late 1970s Chinese avant-garde Ai Weiwei moved to New York in 1981 where he spent more than a decade in a crowd among names such as Allen Ginsberg and Wang Keping. During his New York years, a growing familiarity with Marcel Duchamp's oeuvre made a deep impact on Ai Weiwei whom adopted an attitude of constantly challenging genres and questioning imposed limitations on art and mankind. In the conceptual work Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), an act of destruction is documented through a series of three analogue photographs, and was created shortly after his return to China. The urn crashing into pieces on impact with the ground can be interpreted as a representation of a Chinese society during times of dramatic change. As much as it speaks of societal transformations, the recorded action is a symbol of hope. Included in the exhibition is a rendering of Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn using LEGO blocks to recreate the image of this iconic work.

Ian McKeever, Henge IV, 2016, oil and acrylic on cotton-duck, 125 x 165 cm

IAN McKEEVER

Paintings and Painted Panels

With a benchmark 6th exhibition with Galleri Andersson/Sandström, we are proud to present the pioneering British abstract painter Ian McKeever’s Paintings and Painted Panels. Two convergent series of paintings will be on display; Hours of Darkness – Hours of Light, and an ongoing series titled Henge. McKeever’s acute sensibility of light and space in painting will be on display in full force.

The Hours of Darkness – Hours of Light series was originally created by the artist in 2014 after he was invited to exhibit at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, a large Jesuit church in Cologne, Germany. McKeever’s approach is experimental, exploring new methods to propel his senses deeper into the process of painting. For this occasion the artist choose to start with his own “abandoned” paintings. Taking fragments of those paintings, McKeever has re-worked and activated them by adhering them onto wooden panels. By reinvestigating these “abandoned” paintings he has changed their histories, and has created something quite new and beautiful. These panels are a result of McKeever’s persistent interest in what is possible with the surface of a painting, its ability to emit a presence of light or its ability to absorb it, hence the title Hours of Darkness – Hours of Light.

Tony Cragg. Installation view Unnatural Selection. Photo: Michael Richter

TONY CRAGG

HESSISCHES LANDESMUSEUM DARMSTADT

UNNATURAL SELECTION

A major solo exhibition Unnatural Selecion by Tony Cragg opens today at Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. The exhibition will be on view until March 26th, 2017. FInd more information here!

www.hlmd.de

Katrin Westman, Robe I, 2016, oil on canvas, 215 x 200 cm. Installation height 210 cm

KATRIN WESTMAN

DISROBEMENT

Galleri Andersson/Sandström concludes its autumn season with an extremely ambitious young artist, Katrin Westman (b. 1987).  Working abstractly, she is not content to allow the edge of frame to contain her expression as many of her work adopt a sculptural form and encroach into the room. Disrobement explores the new boundaries of abstract painting and announces that the tradition of painting is alive and relevant.

In Westman's exhibition Disrobement, the artist presents an all new body of work that both challenges the viewer’s physical space and their preconceived notions about painting. “Painting in the expanded field” is a relevant concept that can be seen in both her large-scale paintings, and in several sculptural-like painting that physically engages with the viewer.

Westman takes the viewer on a journey across the canvas in her brush strokes, revealing her process. Westman begins these journeys in the long history painting, and with that there is a strong presence of the human form in her work. By digging into the past, she ends up in the moment. Several of the works in the exhibition are inspired by the Italian 16th century artist Giovanni Bernini's sculptures.

Heli Hiltunen, Summer Nights Studies 7, 2016, archival pigment print, 41 x 41 cm

HELI HILTUNEN 

Half Remembered Light

Galleri Andersson/Sandström is proud to present our second solo exhibition with one of Finland’s most established contemporary artists, Heli Hiltunen (b. 1960).

Hiltunen moves in-between the boundary of photography and painting. In this exhibition, Hiltunen will take the viewer on a journey through melancholy landscapes, fragmented narratives, and dream-like states in what has become her signature style.