Sten A Olsson Culture Scholarship 2018

Monumental paintings in black and white, and enormous colourful tapestries. Gothenburg Museum of Art finishes the year with an exhibition that includes stark contrasts and focuses on two important female artists: Annika Ekdahl and Gunnel Wåhlstrand. Welcome to the press preview on December 6th.

Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture plays an important role in the cultural life of Gothenburg, providing a unique opportunity for artists to be seen and to produce new works. During the past twentyteo years, the foundation has awarded a large number of educational scholarships to talented practitioners in art, music, theatre, dance, literature, design and scenography. The Foundation has also given financial support to a number of Swedish projects in research and culture.

This year, the Sten A Olsson Culture Scholarship has been awarded to six cultural practitioners who each receive the sum of 300 000 SEK to stimulate their continued development. The exhibition featuring the artists Annika Ekdahl and Gunnel Wåhlstrand opens on 8 December. Several different works by each artist will be shown, some of which are new and have never been shown before.

- Annika Ekdahl and Gunnel Wåhlstrand both work with time-consuming and technically demanding processes that allow for a generous level of detail and narrative. There are very few works available, so it´s a great pleasure to be able to present an exhibition that encompasses both central works in the respective oeuvres and completely new works that will be shown for the first time, says Johan Sjöström, curator of the exhibition.

Annika Ekdahl (b 1955) investigates the limits of visual art with her late mediaeval tapestry technique. She creates completely contemporary visual worlds in the large format and the viewer is invited to a landscape where myths and dreams meet family scenes and personal statements.

Gunnel Wåhlstrand (b 1974) is renowned for her black and white ink paintings. With a time-consuming and meticulous technique, she creates portraits and landscapes, not seldom with her own family photo album as a starting point. Questions about time, memory and loss are crucial in her oeuvre.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue in which all the recipients of the scholarships are presented from personal meetings with the author, providing unique insights into each artist’s work.

Motivations:

Textile artist Annika Ekdahl

»In Annika Ekdahl’s tapestries, the tangible materiality of the weave becomes a runway for bold visual leaps between different environments and experiences. Scenes from the artist’s own life with her family, work and travel blend together with motifs alluding to myths and fantasies. The boundaries become blurred and the images take the form of teeming worlds into which the viewer curiously enters. Despite the often very personal content and the monumental aspect of the tapestries Annika Ekdahl always leaves something to the imagination of the beholder – one feels invited.

For her generous visual creativity and her magnificent renewal of the tapestry as a medium, Annika Ekdahl has been awarded the 2018 Scholarship from the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.«

Artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand

»Gunnel Wåhlstrand’s paintings create rifts in time, and follow paths into uncharted territory. She works with ink on paper in an exceedingly time-consuming and meticulous technique, often based on photographic sources. In large formats, she creates encounters between the instantaneous and slower drifts towards distant places and memories. With laconic acuity and a low-key existentialist tone, our relationship to the passing of time is mirrored in the inner and outer landscapes, rich in shades. Recurring themes are the inaccessibility of memory and the experience of being separated from the world yet still a part of it.

For an artistic body of work that is nourished by the overlooked details of everyday life, but also evokes the supersensory reality of remembrance and dreams, Gunnel Wåhlstrand has been awarded the 2018 Scholarship from the Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.«

Press preview
Welcome to the press preview on Thursday 6 December at 11 am.
The artists will be present at the press preview.

Kindly inform us of your participation Tuesday 4 December the latest by contacting Helene Karlsson, Communicator, +46 (0)31-368 35 07,helene.karlsson@kultur.goteborg.se

Opening
Welcome to the opening Saturday, 8 December at 2 pm.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by Madeleine Olsson Eriksson, chairman of Sten A Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture.

Contact
Helene Karlsson, Communications
+ 46(0)31-368 35 07, helene.karlsson@kultur.goteborg.se

Johan Sjöström, Curator
+46(0)31-368 35 08, johan.sjostrom@kultur.goteborg.se

Anna Hyltze, Acting Museum Director
+46 (0)31-368 35 20, anna.hyltze@kultur.goteborg.se