Kunstkritikk – Nordic Art Review

Nordic News Weekly – February 15th

Record visitor numbers leads to economic crisis at the Swedish National Museum and The World’s Northernmost Chinatown opens in Kirkenes.

Let the Games Begin

Sun and Spring in January is so overtly instrumental in its approach to art that it’s almost cute. It’s certainly comical.

Seeing Double

Lindsay Seer’s colour-restrained and inverted photographs attempt to rescue the image from manipulative discourses.

We Asked for It

Netflix’s new art world horror film, Velvet Buzzsaw, capitalises on the real life horrors of the art world.

Putting the Past Behind Us

Lund’s Konsthall’s exhibition about Chile’s contemporary history is at its best when it establishes critical distance to its politically and emotionally charged subject.

Hat Mountain

How Destiny’s Gratinée at Kunstnernes Hus sent me into a meditation on hats and painted chambers from the 15th century.

The Homogenous Community

The notable exhibition series Game of Life at Kristiansand Kunsthall concludes with a masterful, if sombre dissonance.

I’m Not Laughing

Peter Wächtler is in full control of his palette at Bergen Kunsthall.

The Invisible Ornamentation of Everyday Life

Martin Sæther’s low-key and poetic exhibition at UKS in Oslo gives centre stage to the impersonal details of home interiors.

Kunsthal Aarhus Brings Its A Game in Diagnostic Exhibition

With Post Institutional Stress Disorder, Jacob Fabricius offers an empathic diagnosis of our present day, and challenges the exhibition medium with aplomb.

The Far Side of the Swedish Doofus

Peter Johansson’s double exhibition in Malmö is a heartbreaking reckoning with the sexual abuse the artist was subjected to growing up in the 1970s.

A Unique Account of Indigenous Art

The OCA publication Sovereign Words insists on the difference between cultivating traditionalism and being true to one’s own traditions.

The Not-So-New Alphabet

Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin has started the last chapter of the broad-reaching trilogy that started with The Anthropocene Project in 2013. This time, it is all about the alphabet.

Spring Sonata – Denmark

The upcoming general elections are unlikely to change the dazed confusion of Danish cultural politics. But an exhibition about the EU and a Sonja Ferlov Mancoba retrospective look promising.

Spring Sonata – Sweden

In Sweden, the spring season is dominated by some of Norway’s most acclaimed artists. And at Nationalmuseum, the Danish golden age is recreated.

Gastro-Pornographic Resistance

Helga Christoffersen’s delectable group show at Galleri Susanne Ottesen leaves me angry, excited, and hungry.

Opacity at the Bottom of the Mirror

At a time when Sami artists are increasingly visible, Britta Marakatt-Labba’s unsettling of ties between biography, identity, and content feels both necessary and urgent.