In painting we have a myriad of structures and structural tools, many of which could feel obvious and banal. But this does not disqualify them from artistic and curatorial attention.
The structures we use provide both limitations and a release; through this we already know the works to some degree even before we spend time with them. This recognition operates beyond what an art connoisseur can point to with accuracy, since many of these structures are fundamental to visual language beyond painting, there can be both active and passive recognition. These structures could be seen as providers; links to sensations, narratives and choices regardless of your relation to art and traditions. In art the function of these structures takes on what could resemble performative roles in how they activate memory and allow the feeling of familiarity in form, depiction and structure.
The act of painting is to push and blend material on material while processing the structural and contextual content we engage with.
Selma Sjöstedt and Stian Hansen studied together at Oslo Art Academy before moving to Malmö Art Academy and Städelschule in Frankfurt respectively. This exhibition places these two practices side by side based on artistic common denominators; some fundamental roots and gestures.
The exhibition is realised with support from Kulturrådet.
