Elias Crespin, Chronomorphosis, Bildmuseet, Umeå
At Bildmuseet, I encountered the Venezuelan artist Elias Crespin’s kinetic sculptures. A collection of choreographies – as he calls them – in which small moving geometric shapes suspended on fishing lines from a mechanism in the ceiling, formed slowly shifting and pulsating structures oscillating between order and chaos. I was pleasantly reminded of old Windows screensavers, and how, as a child, I could get stuck watching the random shapes’ hypnotic movements. Strong encounters with art can come unexpectedly.
Stefan Johansson, Sken och skuggor (Light and Shadows), Värmlands Museum, Karlstad
Stefan Johansson’s (1876–1955) quiet interiors and landscapes give me shivers of pleasure. Above all, it seems to be the atmosphere he sought to depict, not the specific place. At the same time, there is a distance in the paintings, which I believe has to do with his singular technique – often watercolour on canvas, where the pigment has been applied, washed away, then applied again, in a meticulous yet enigmatic process. The exhibition approached this mystery by showing preparatory studies mounted on glass, so they could be viewed from both sides. Also on display were personal objects, sketches, and profiles of his self-constructed picture frames. A small show in terms of scale, but very rich in content.
Ulla Wiggen, Passage, Västerås Art Museum, Västerås
Like Stefan Johansson, Ulla Wiggen doesn’t work with grand gestures. In her meticulous paintings reminiscent of anatomical drawings or construction plans there is, at times, an uncanny feeling. As with the artists of the New Objectivity movement in the 1920s and 30s, reality becomes even more incomprehensible through the painting’s sheer richness of detail. Many of Wiggen’s works have been shown several times in different contexts and feel like old acquaintances, yet they still reward when returned to. I love her portraits from the early 1970s, with their isolated forms against blue skies. There is something of virtual reality about them, but also something slightly Surrealist, like the Halmstad Group’s images of sea and sky.
– Leif Engström is an artist based in Stockholm. A MA-graduate of the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2020), he is currently participating in group exhibitions at Moderna Museet and Waldemarsudde, and will open his third solo show at Cecilia Hillström Gallery in March.
For this year’s contributions to the Advent Calendar, see here.
