Bildmuseet: I Cut across the Stream / Umeå Academy of Fine Arts

I Cut across the Stream is the title of this year’s master's degree show from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden. It will open at Bildmuseet on 26 May with an Art Friday event. Welcome to the press preview on Wednesday, 24 May from 10:00–11:00 (R.S.V.P). The artists will be there to present their works.

For the last two years, the master’s degree students at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts have been working in the studios and workshops overlooking the Umeälven River; a powerful torrent in the summer, an iced-over, wide-open canvas during the long, semi-Arctic winter. Alongside the Academy’s teaching faculty, visiting international artists, curators and theoreticians, the students have negotiated their artistic trajectories across many streams of thought and gesture. In this year’s MA graduation exhibition at Bildmuseet, they invite you to join them in cutting across.

How do you stand back from the flood of today’s information, quietly yet accurately observing the currents of the past and the present, to determine where to cut across the stream, however violent the currents may be? What may be holding you captive on this side of the river, and what horizons do you imagine and discover coming into being when you step out of the boat, or off the known shores, into the waves and an open horizon?

This year’s master's degree show from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå University, presents works by Oliver Bugge, Linn Byrkjeland, Noa Costas Martín, Gideon Eillert, Emie // Eva-Marie Elg, Therése Hurtig, Kiril Prikazcik, Eric Seppas, Rebecca Sharp, Fredrik Zanichelli, Anna Zingmark, and Jo Öqvist. Principal supervisor and curator: Kristina Buch, artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts.

The exhibition runs at Bildmuseet from 26 May – 20 August 2023.

Press preview Wednesday 24 May, 10:00-12:00 (R.S.V.P)
All the artists will be attending, as well as professor Kristina Buch, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, and museum curator Lisa Lundström, Bildmuseet. Press images.

Exhibition opening Friday 26 May, 17:00–24:00
I Cut across the Stream will open during Art Friday 26 May in the presence of the artists. The exhibition is opened at 18:00 by director Katarina Pierre, Bildmuseet, a speech by Per Nilsson, head of department at the Academy of Fine Arts, and a short introduction to the exhibition by the curator Kristina Buch. Performances and other programs in the exhibition at 21:00.

Two other exhibitions will be opened at Bildmuseet the same evening: Down North / Contemporary Art in the Arctic and Swedish Picture Book of the Year / The Wound by Emma AdBåge. The program also offers a live concert with Dreaming Wild, a drop-in workshop, DJs Annika Norlin and Bottenvikens Silverkyrka, and more. Restaurant and bar until midnight.

Artist-led workshops 2 – 4 June
Friday 2 June, 12:00-16:00:
Noa Costas Mártin is running a workshop for people on paternal leave with children aged 0-6.
Saturday and Sunday 3–4 June, 12:00–17:00:
Kiril Prikazcik leads a painting workshop with drop-in for museum visitors of all ages.

Artist-led guided tour, Sunday 4 June 14:00–15:00
The graduating artists present their works in the exhibition in conversation with museum curator Lisa Lundström, Bildmuseet

Distribution of Grants, Sunday 4 June 15:00–16:00
Distribution of grants and awards among the graduating students. From Skytteanska samfundet, Umeå municipality, Västerbotten County Council, Gallery Verkligheten, and from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. Head of department Per Nilsson will present the grants.

8–22 June, the master's students will show their work at the GSA Gallery in Stockholm,

Further information
Lisa Lundström, museum curator
+46 90-786 9512, lisa.lundstrom@bildmuseet.umu.se

Helena Vejbrink, press contact
+46 90-786 9073, helena.vejbrink@bildmuseet.umu.se