In Peter Ern's new exhibition 'A Place Called Home' strangeness permeates the imagery. Between dream and nightmare, between secrecy and homeliness, a dense drama evolves. Presence and absence here appears to be equal.
In Peter Ern’s new exhibition ‘A Place Called Home,’ strangeness
permeates the imagery. Between dream and nightmare, between secrecy
and homeliness, a dense drama evolves. Presence and absence here
appears to be equal. The wasted spaces behind industrial estates are
loaded with meaning, not because something has happened or is about to
happen here, but simply because the very absence demands our
attention. The images appear as if outside of time, detached from any
action or movement that may previously have taken possession of the
place. It is not even a case of being in the right place at the wrong
time.
The melancholy quietly evoked by Peter Ern’s new paintings does not
derive from the sense of estrangement they convey – quite the opposite
– it grows out of a sense of something recognizable. The condition of
déjà-vu and of the sleepwalker prevails. It is the landscape of
suburbs: holiday cottage areas, country tracks and blocks of rented
housing. These are the places that have followed Ern through his
practice and become part of his paintings’ mythology. Nature, people
and trees take on a graphic quality, appearing as constants in a world
of change. The large format gives the works more than literal weight;
they appear loaded, as if something is breaking, as in the quiet
moment before a storm breaks out.
Peter Ern was born in Stockholm in 1965, and lives and works in
Norrtälje. He graduated from Kungliga Konsthögskolan in Stockholm in
1992. Recent exhibitions include Enköpings Konsthall, Beaver Projects,
Copenhagen, as well as several group shows.
Opening reception Thursday the 10th of March, 5–8 p.m
ALP / Peter Bergman
Torsgatan 41, SE-113 62 Stockholm
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Friday 12-5 PM, Saturday 12-4 PM
free admission