8 December 2018 — 10 February 2019
Monumental paintings in black and white, and enormous colourful tapestries. Gothenburg Museum of Art finishes the year with an exhibition that includes stark contrasts and focuses on two important female artists: Annika Ekdahl and Gunnel Wåhlstrand.
Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture plays an important role in the cultural life of Gothenburg, providing a unique opportunity for artists to be seen and to produce new works. During the past twentytwo years, the foundation has awarded a large number of educational scholarships to talented practitioners in art, music, theatre, dance, literature, design and scenography. This year, the Sten A Olsson Culture Scholarship has been awarded to six cultural practitioners who each receive the sum of 300 000 SEK to stimulate their continued development.
On December 8:th, an exhibition featuring the artists Annika Ekdahl and Gunnel Wåhlstrand opens in the Stena Gallery. Several different works by each artist will be shown, some of which are new and have never been shown before.
Motivations:
Textile Artist Annika Ekdahl
»In Annika Ekdahl’s tapestries, the tangible materiality of the weave becomes a runway for bold visual leaps between different environments and experiences. Scenes from the artist’s own life with her family, work and travel blend together with motifs alluding to myths and fantasies. The boundaries become blurred and the images take the form of teeming worlds into which the viewer curiously enters. Despite the often very personal content and the monumental aspect of the tapestries Annika Ekdahl always leaves something to the imagination of the beholder – one feels invited.
For her generous visual creativity and her magnificent renewal of the tapestry as a medium, Annika Ekdahl has been awarded the 2018 Scholarship from the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.«
Artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand
»Gunnel Wåhlstrand’s paintings create rifts in time, and follow paths into uncharted territory. She works with ink on paper in an exceedingly time-consuming and meticulous technique, often based on photographic sources. In large formats, she creates encounters between the instantaneous and slower drifts towards distant places and memories. With laconic acuity and a low-key existentialist tone, our relationship to the passing of time is mirrored in the inner and outer landscapes, rich in shades. Recurring themes are the inaccessibility of memory and the experience of being separated from the world yet still a part of it.
For an artistic body of work that is nourished by the overlooked details of everyday life, but also evokes the supersensory reality of remembrance and dreams, Gunnel Wåhlstrand has been awarded the 2018 Scholarship from the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.«
Illustration: Ola Ingvarsson