Johan Nobell
dal 12/1/2011 al 12/2/2011
Segnalato da
12/1/2011
Johan Nobell
Andrehn-Schiptjenko 2, Stockholm
The title of the show, Gone to Croatan, refers to a group of British colonists in Roanoke, North Carolina, who in 1590 disappeared and left only the cryptic message 'Croatan', carved on the trunk of a tree. In his works the landscapes are simultaneously fragile and majestic, communicating a sense of doom.
Andréhn-Schiptjenko is proud to present Johan Nobell’s third solo show at the gallery. The title of the show, Gone to Croatan, refers to a group of British colonists in Roanoke, North Carolina, who in 1590 disappeared and left only the cryptic message “Croatan”, carved on the trunk of a tree. This expression has come to mean to turn one’s back to civilisation in an attempt to seek, and assimilate, the natural and the genuine.
The history of art, like most other history, is written by those who have won the battles. The modern western history and the birth of modernism are intimately connected with the hegemony of the bourgeoisie, in the way it has asserted itself after the dominance of the church and the nobility. Parallel to this one might speak of a certain bourgeoisie of painting, emanated from a wish to distance itself from the aristocratic decadent pleasures and pastels colours of the rococo and later as a result of the decline of representation as painting raison d’être in favour of painting as an experience in and of itself. To engage in painting today inevitably implies a relationship to its history, not only because painting is one of the oldest artistic means of expression but also because it is one of the most debated, by some viewed as the most superior, by others seen as obsolete.
Nobell’s painting can be understood in direct relation to this idea of the bourgeoisie of painting. He works in the double space where representation and abstraction confront one another and his practice is also related to surrealism’s challenge of our conventions. The landscapes are simultaneously fragile and majestic, communicating a sense of doom confronted by cartoonish figures in a mix of the uncanny and the playful. A paraphrase of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat is, among others, found in one of the fateful landscapes where diffuse subjects create their own utopian projects. Johan Nobell is considered one of Scandinavia’s most original painters and has developed a pictorial language that is very much his own, an artistic project hat articulates an alternative to the mainstream where a lot of contemporary painting is to be found. This singular attitude is also reflected in the paintings’ formats and installation where a great number of works, ranging from small to miniatures, are arranged in classical salon-style.
Johan Nobell, born 1963 on Gotland, lives and works in Stockholm and was educated at Valands Konsthögskola, Gothenburg. His work has recently been shown at Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn USA, at Stephane Simoens Contemporary Fine Art in Knokke Belgium and at Galleri Bendixen in Copenhagen. The exhibition runs through Sunday February 13.
Opening Thursday January 13th between 5-8 pm.
Andrehn-Schiptjenko 2
Hudiksvallsgatan 8, Stockholm
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m
Saturday-Sunday noon-4 p.m.
free admission