Friday, September 14, 2012

MANMADEGOD


2nd of August - 1st of September

With
Amir Chasson
Gorka Mohamed
Haroun Haward
Soheila Sokhenvari

With the gallery open I have little time to write on the blog, but I thought that at least I should keep it going with posts about the exhibits that I am having at ArtEco Gallery.

MANMADEGOD started with me contacting Soheila as one of the first that I told that I am planing to open a gallery. Energetic as Soheila is, it did not take long for her to say she wants to do an exhibit with 3 other artists, Haroun, Gorka and Amir that she was thinking highly about, and that perhaps we then could do it at my gallery.
Soon enough we all 5 were sitting at Tate Modern drinking beer until closing and the exhibit began to take shape.
6 months later the exhibit opened and now I think that we will all stay friends for a long long time and the exhibit was a big WOW! And a great success for my Gallery.

Here are a few images of the exhibit, enjoy:



Haroun Haward
"The Narcissism of small differenced"
(Acid house version)



Soheila Sokhanvari
from the "Midnight Climax" series

Amir Chasson
"A whiff of Evidence"



Amir Chasson
"Nazis and Astronauts"

Gorka Mohamed
"Advisor"




Great memories!

With Love
Kristin

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

After Munch



AFTER MUNCH
Opening at ArtEco Gallery
June 28 2012

Unni Askeland, Crispin Gurholt and Markus Brendmoe

ArtEco Gallery has opened it's doors and it has taken me nearly a month to post the first blog about it.
It has been overwhelming on all fronts. 
First I would like to mention my luck at working with Unni Askeland, Markus Brendmoe and Crispin Gurholt in my first show. All of them putting the often repeated comment that Artists are difficult to shame. They have all three been positive, supportive and also fun to be with. At the opening even bringing friends and family over from Norway. 
Yes, because the opening was quite an event with an incredible turnout of people making it impossible to close the gallery after the scheduled three hours preview that lasted for 5 hours but still with nobody considering that it is over... could it not last for ever, oh yes I wished as well, but we continued the party across the street until the darkness brought us home.

The aftermath was quite something else, the party was over and the work about to start. Being nervous and actually shaking of exhaustion I began my new life. Although it is quite a shock to realise how quiet galleries can be on a normal day, every day has brought me a new interesting person into my life. Every day has had good news in it. Now it is time to build up the gallery slowly, with care and with artists that I believe have a long future ahead. Ambitious as I am I will try my best at becoming the best, even how long it is going to take me, I am here to stay.

"The Scream" by Markus Brendmoe

"After Munch" has been a fantastic way to launch ArtEco Gallery. To go back to my roots and to start from where it all began feels right. With the stunning exhibit "The Modern Eye" at the Tate Modern, Edvard Munch is also taking over other nations hearts as well... although some say it is a bit dark.
It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to show Norwegian Contemporary Artists to London in a very interesting perspective. After having seen the Munch exhibit twice, I am even more convinced about how important this exhibit will stand in the future. You might think I am over my self here, but time will show, I might be wrong but at least it will be standing strong as ArtEco Gallery´s first show.
As this is my first show it will be an incredibly hard task to take it down this weekend. I have grown a strong bond with all the art work and the artists.

"Separation"
Unni Askeland


With my wonderful friend and help the first week Synne Ravel






"Darkroom"
Crispin Gurholt

"The Sick Child"
"Night at Ekely"
Markus Brendmoe

"Captain, my Captain"
Unni Askeland

"Sunday 17:45"
Crispin Gurholt

The good thing is; this is only the beginning!

There will be a great program this fall as well, and I hope it will bring a lot of people together and great opportunities for all involved.




With Love,
Kristin

- Images by Liam Rogers

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Paper Splash


PIA MYRVOLD
"Paper Splash"
Off/dOCUMENTA (13)
Kassel
7-9th of June

In a few hours I am on the Eurostar to Paris where I will meet Pia Myrvold. We will be discussing the directions of her future show in London this October at ArtEco Gallery. 
We will then cruise down to Kassel for off/documenta to put up a three day improvised art action:


In “Papers Splash”, Pia MYrvoLD uses urban spaces and public
areas as large scale canvases, placing and creating patterns with
printed paper in various sizes as ephemeral large scale collages,
usually made as a performance using added effects within a time
span of 30 to 60 minutes, according to scale and participating
crew. The surface of “Paper Splash” is then gradually
transformed and eventually destroyed by weather, the passing
public, traffic, and the regular users of the space.
In connection with the opening week of dOCUMENTA (13), Pia
MYrvoLD proposes "Paper Splash" as an unofficial improvised art
action that celebrates non-conformity, fantasy, imagination and
freedom in contemporary art, and reminds us that art often
happens first at the margins of organized culture and in an unofficial
capacity.




The happening is sponsored by ArtEco Gallery.
Make sure you check ArtEcoGallery on Twitter for specific locations.

With "Excited" Love 
Kristin








Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Confessions of an Art Addict


PEGGY GUGGENHEIM

Who would I have wished to invite for dinner? Peggy Guggenheim of course!
Slowly turning into an absolute Art Addict myself, without the same capacity to collect as her, but soon I will be able to present and show great artists that I believe in.
Interestingly enough she opened here first Gallery at the same age as me, or should I say inspiringly for me. Her gallery did not last long in London because of the second world war, and changes like creating a little museum instead. But, Peggy continued in New York, where she must be given the credit of bringing out some of the greatest artist of the last Century.
The list is long but she is probably best known for her support to Jackson Pollock and her interesting marriages and affairs that includes among others Laurence Vail, Samuel Beckett and Max Ernst.

Later Peggy decided that Venice was going to be where she would like to live, she bought a Palace and started showing Art right out of her home. Sometimes to the confusion of both visitors and staff.

The books is a refreshing comment on her addiction, she writes freely and honestly.
Quite entertaining at times.
As with her phallic horseman sculpture by Marino that she was showing:

"When the nuns came to be blessed by the Patriarch, who on special holy days, went by my house in a motorboat, I detached the phallus of the horseman and hid it in a drawer. I also did this on certain days when I had to receive stuffy visitors, but occasionally I forgot, and when confronted with this phallus found myself in great embarrassment. The only thing to do in such cases was to ignore it. In Venice a legend spread that I had several phalluses of different sizes, like spare parts, which I used in different occasions."

When it comes to it my biggest wish is not to have Peggy come to my dinner party, but that I could have been at one of her guests, it must have been extraordinary. But I will have to be grateful that I get to read about it.

With Love
Kristin



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Catlin Award 2012

Soheila Sokhanvari
Google TPAJAX to find the title
Taxidermy, jesmonite, car paint, metal

CATLIN AWARD 2012

Last night was the final ceremony for the Catlin award. It is an award given to recent graduates from UK art schools. First they pick 40 artists that they see as the most talented of that year, later it triggers down to 10 of these that goes on to be part of the final award. 

Soheila Sokhanvari, that I am so lucky to have a chance to show work by in August at my Gallery was one of the finalists. Soheila is an incredible person as well as an artist. Coming from Iran where every prominent governmental figure is shown proudly and statuesque sitting on a horse, she is here showing a horse that has been taken over, a horse that is lying on it's back overwhelmed by its time. How Soheila has managed to create this piece continues to baffle me, I have seen another of her horses before, but when I came to the award I was pulled back by it and the only thing I could exclaim was "WOW!". Her background in biology is probably one of many links to her impressive craftsmanship.


Greta Alfaro
Invencion #1-3
Plasterboard construction covered in edible meringue



Greta Alfaro drew my interest with these photographs and the exciting work that has been done to make it. To think she made this scenario out of edible meringue is quite baffling.

Adeline De Monsegnat
Mother HEB/Loletta
Vintage fur, pillow filler, glass, motor, wood, sand

Adeline de Monsegnat won the viewers price, unfortunately this image is not giving it the credit it deserves. In real, the furry balls are both beautiful and a bit frightening.

Johnny Briggs
Comfort Object
C-type Lambda prints individually mounted

Johnny Briggs, takes photographs reflecting on relationships, especially his relationship to his parents. They are haunting and touching at the same time.

Johnny Briggs
Un-seeing
C-type Lambda print



Julia Vogl
Coloured carpet tiles, vinyl.

Julia Vogl was the winner of the award, I must admit I felt a bit cheated... It is a fun piece and has a great way of interacting with its audience, but seems a bit unfinished and rather simple compared to the other contestants work. 


Soheila and I

Still happy even if she did not win, but in my heart she did.

With Love
Kristin


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

SCREAM


EDVARD MUNCH
Sotheby's evening sale 2nd of May 2012

Just turned on the Sotheby's evening sale online viewing... and I find myself terribly excited. In one minute begins the sale and "The Scream" is lot number 20. The most talked about Art sale of the year. How much will it go for? Who will buy it?

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seat".

So there it begins, with Matisse, Picasso, Leger all selling at good, if not over estimates with a bit of a dip with Soutine.
Feeling like I am having some sort of personal relationship with this painting, like it is the Norwegian soul being sold somehow, but telling myself there are others at "home", also it is quite amazing what this sale of "Scream" is doing for Edvard Munch's placement in the history of art. Suddenly all are talking about the Scream, even the ones who clearly do not care that much about art.

As another reason for my excitement is the Munch exhibit that is happening at the Tate Modern this summer, but really and honestly I am most excited about the opening exhibit of ArtEco Gallery with an exhibit called "After Munch".
In direct response to the Tate exhibit I have arranged an exhibit with acclaimed Norwegian Artists that will represent the feeling of Munch in us now.

.... And there the internet is down and no online viewing is possible... will have to wait patiently (not my strongest quality) and hope that it will pick up again before lot 20. I have only 5 lots to go on...

What?  I am getting the response "This auction is over" is it possible? No... finally I get back in and I can't get a picture but I can hear the auctioneer trying to get a higher bid than $107 Million... but it is not working so $107 Million it is. With the Buyers premium it ends up being 119,922,500 USD.
As I understand this is the highest paid painting at auction. *Auction houses has been involved in higher sales as an example the Gustave Klimt painting in 2006 "Portrait of Adele Blochbauer I" sold at $135 Millions, but as a private sale via Christie's. You can now find that painting at the Neue Galerie in New York. But now the question that lingers is, will we get to see "The Scream" again...? maybe we will know tomorrow.
Now I will follow the London time and slowly fall asleep, but first I have to show you Markus Brendmoe's version of the "Scream" That I will be showing at Art Eco Gallery's grand opening the 28th of June.



Markus Brendmoe
Skrik (Scream) 2009

Markus who has been influenced by Munch, has also here in this painting used images from the devastating 7/7 terrorist bombing in London, so very appropriate that I get to show it here.
Last year Markus Brendmoe had a very successful exhibit called "Munch etc." at the Stenerersenmuseumet in Oslo. ArtEco Gallery is thrilled to have him be part of the opening exhibit together with Unni Askeland and Crispin Gurholt! You will hear more about it later:)

With all this excitement, do you think I can sleep?
Well I will try,
With Love
Kristin





Monday, April 23, 2012

Out of Body

Installation view
Photo: Andy Keate
©South London Gallery

Alice Channer
South London Gallery

To take a trip to South London Gallery has been on my to do list for a long time, I was glad when I finally got to visit the space on Friday. In the large bright room, is beautifully printed crepe de chine suspended from the cathedral ceiling, that gives you a bit of a Wow! effect at arrival.
With the "Out of the Body" Exhibit Alice Channer brings together both the humanly and the spacial elements. I feel I can see muscles in the drapery and other parts like ears and eyes are sort of deconstructed on the walls and along the floor. Altogether you have Alice Channer body sort of existing in the room with you, while you do your discoveries.

Warm Metal Body
Photo: Andy Keate
©South London Gallery



Eyes, 2012
Photo: Andy Keate
©South London Gallery



Installation view
Photo: Andy Keate
©South London Gallery

Channer says: 
“I am not trying to oppose or find alternatives to the things that separate us from ourselves – the machine, the industrial, the virtual, the commercial.  Instead, I am seduced by these things and am becoming part of them through the work. The work is me, breathing, feeling and thinking with, through and as part of the processes and materials that make up the industrial and post-industrial late-capitalist world that I live in and that constitute my work.”

- South London Gallery


With Love
Kristin






Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Sweetheart

Ian Davenport & Sue Arrowsmith
Midnight Moonlight, 2012

SWEETHEART
Artist Couples
Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

An excited buzz was going on when I arrived at the Pippy Houldsworth gallery last week, the feeling of a show that has gone right was in the air. Good reviews in the papers, feels rightly deserved after a few years in the making. It was not easy to put up this show I was told, a lot of artists got put off by the title, not finding the humor and the irony. But with the once who did you could feel the excitement of working together, either the tension or the artistic pull. 

Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy saying it was easier to work than driving a car together, signing off with a heart on the tree. Combining Rosa Loy's use of animals with Neo Rauch's take on social realism the painting really stands out.

The Ian Davenport and Sue Arrowsmith's work ended up being a layer upon layer painting where he began with the circle and she added the tree silhouette, and with that fulfilling each other.

Neo Rauch & Rosa Loy
Die Jagdegesellschaft, 2012

Anthony Gormley and Vicken Parsons
Relational Aesthetics 2012

With Gormley and Parsons you get a combination of her abstract work and his sculptures based on DNA. A dreamy piece of how we try to relate to each other, never really touching completely? But staying in the same universe.

Rem Koolhaas & Madelon Vriesendorp
Captive Globe Revisited, 1994


Madelon Vriesendorp, 
Flagrant Delit, 1975-2008

The skyscrapers sharing the same bed somehow really hit home for me. Since I fell in love with a man who builds skyscrapers himself, I could just see us lying there in the middle of Manhattan, and with the beach image in the background (where we also moved to). 
These drawings were also part of the inspiration for the Sweetheart show.
It is always interesting to find out how couple works, will it create intrigues or inspiration? closer or looser bounds?
As I am just starting the renovation of my Gallery today, I am sure grateful that I have that close bond to my architect husband, I am not sure how I would do it without him:)

With Love
Kristin

Monday, March 19, 2012

JUST KIDS



Patti Smith
Just Kids

While reading this book I was thinking about how much Patti Smith's music has meant to me. Not only the music but her attitude, hey, after seeing the cover of the Album "Easter" I did not shave my underarms for a long time... not that it was much needed, young as I was, but it was a symbol of the strong Female and I being a teenage feminist (who thought that meant "I can carry my own suitcase") took this seriously.


Many years later I was lucky enough to see Patti Smith play for a smaller audience at the American Patrons of Tate Artist's dinner in New York. Enthusiastic as I was, I was the only standing ovationer, and since it would have been too embarrassing to sit down again, I stood there for quite a long time, thinking should one not stand when it's a dinner? But deep inside I felt that they all wished they could stand too... Right? Well it was that good to me.

Patti Smith is bearing it all here, I admire her honesty! The book is personal, touching and inspiring.
Reading about her and Robert Mapplethorpe's meeting, love affair and their life-long friendship makes you think of how a chance meeting can be life transforming.  
They struggled together, surviving on small jobs, even hustling (Robert) and at the same time brought out the best artistic traits in each other through an endless amount of support.
They knew they wanted to be artists, there was no way they would not be, but how and with what followed a long set of trials from drawing to writing, acting, and spoken word. To become one Rock Star and one revolutionary Photographer.

"We were Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the World."
Patti Smith

The road travelled is described here from Patti's childhood to their first meeting and ends with Robert dying of AIDS in 1989.

"There were days, rainy days, when the streets of Brooklyn were worthy of a photograph, every window the lens of a Leica, the view grainy and immobile. We gathered our colored pencils and sheets of paper and drew like wild, feral children into the night, until exhausted, we fell into bed. We lay in each other's arms, still awkward but happy, exchanging breathless kisses into sleep."
Patti Smith


...  last letter:

Dear Robert,
Often as I lie awake I wonder if you are also lying awake. Are you in pain or feeling alone?
You drew me from the darkest period of my young life, sharing with me the sacred mystery of what it is to be an artist. I learned to see through you and never compose a line or draw a curve that does not come from the knowledge I derived in our precious time together. Your work, coming from a fluid source, can be traced to the naked song of your youth. You spoke then of holding hands with God. Remember, through everything, you have always held that hand, grip it hard Robert, and don't let go.
The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occurred to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all.
Patti


I presume that I don't need to invite you to read this beautiful love story, you will just have to!

With Love
Kristin