Happy Holidays

As we are putting a year behind us and looking forward to 2022,
We long to spend the holidays with loved ones, we hope you do to,

The last months we have showed ten different exhibitions,
Displaying everything from installations, paintings, and editions,

With artist from the US, different parts of Europe, and Sweden,
Our gallery walls have been lusher than the garden of Eden,

Looking forward to the exhibitions that we will show in the new year,
Supporting artist, meeting people, and being in the creative art sphere,

After a well-deserved break from the gallery and some rest,
We promise to be back with art that will make you impressed!

During the past year, we have had the privilege to host 10 different exhibitions at the gallery. Before our first art exhibition for the year, we organized a book sale. The gallery has a long tradition of producing books and catalogues in conjunction to our exhibitions. For us, the thought of our exhibitions continuing their lives within the pages of a book which now can be found in your home is very rewarding.

Those early days of 2021 then continued with a duo exhibition with husband-and-wife Sebastian Blanck and Isca Greenfield-Sanders. In You’re My Favourite Thing By Far the two artists showed their works side by side, highlighting their own but still connected artistic practices. Where one depicts the world as the beholder, the other portrays a close reality. It made us think about friends and family, and how even the most ordinary everyday events affect us. At the same time in our project room, we showed new works by Jason Martin. His sensual and three-dimensional abstract pieces focus on the process of painting, minimalistic yet rich in detail.  

Come April and the Danish photographer Astrid Kruse Jensen’s series Floating transformed the gallery. The series revolves around memories in the blurry state between concrete and abstract reality. With the ongoing pandemic taking turns we, neither could prepare nor foresee, just how much Kruse Jensen’s dreamlike landscape worked as a great comfort, knowing that not everything needs to be crystal clear. Alongside her, Jim Dine lit up our project room with a new series of print with his motifs of the heart reoccurring in several of them.

When spring knocked on the door, we opened the retrospective exhibition Piece of Me by Nathalia Edenmont. The show was curated around the many self-portraits Edenmont continuously has created during the past two decades. Within her deeply personal art, Edenmont explores many great questions around life and death. Parallel to that exhibition, Anna Pajak’s first solo exhibition Ghost Flowers, Arrived Through Water took place in our project room. Within her abstract works, Pajak introduced organic shapes and flowers into her imagery of geometrical spaces. Outside of the gallery walls we experienced vulnerability and how fast a reality can change. Thankfully, we also learned how strong and determined humans can be and how an accident can’t break that spirit.  

After a summer break, containing both rest and rehab, we came back strong in August, starting of the autumn season with Dina Isæus-Berlin’s exhibition Star Verse. The powerful suite of ten large scale oil paintings displayed a series of works derived from the myths of the sky, space, and the planets in our solar system. When we felt small and sometimes helpless, we took great comfort of knowing that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.

In September we could finally meet our colleagues from around the Nordic region at Market Art Fair again! Love Lundell’s black-and-white collages was filled with rich details and small scenes within the larger context, exploring what it is like to be in a state of transition, orbiting through realities and discovering new dimensions, both mentally and physically. This state of transition was something we found ourselves in, not just within these works but in life in general.  

In the exhibition Mildvinter, Ylva Ceder’s paintings took over the gallery. A human presence is always noticeable in her works, but new for this series was the way nature had moved into her sometimes abandoned environments. Wanting to be close, yet keeping distance was something we all had to practice on during autumn and we took comfort in Ceder’s works, as they made this challenge seem so natural and easy.

In late October, we had the honor of welcoming Angela de la Cruz to the gallery for her fourth solo exhibition Hermetic. The narrative for this series is about a space that can be both protecting and imprisoning, just the way our homes might have felt during the pandemic. A key take-away from this exhibition was that whatever might happen, we are ourselves, perhaps just a bit damaged. In our inner rooms, Karin Davie: New Paintings and Drawings took place. Her gestural works often depicts waves which is both a form as well as a metaphor for turbulence but as well as renewal.

During the darkest days of November, we once again felt the warmth from our art community when we took part in Gallery Weekend Stockholm. During the weekend, our Stockholm based colleagues came together and offered a rich program of activities. It really showed us what a great community we operate in.

As the year came to an end, we gathered several of our represented artists in the colourful group exhibition Winter Show. This exhibition featured new artworks as well as works not previously showed at the gallery, representing on-going projects and practices. It served as a great reminder that besides the exhibitions at the gallery, the artists creative journey is ever developing and constantly moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, it is time to do so. As the gallery is stepping into its 44th year of business, we are just as excited as ever for the upcoming year. Our rich program will display a vast array of artists that we are fortunate to work with. Until we meet at the gallery again in January, we wish you a joyful Holiday season. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Wetterling Gallery, 

Björn Wetterling, Johanna Lindholm Malm, Sylvia Rynell, Lo Nylén, Violetta Djorda, Maj Laine & Tina Mallmin