Friday, February 27, 2015

Mamma Andersson, “Behind the cutain” at David Zwirner.

Mamma Andersson, “Behind the cutain” at David Zwirner.
519 & 525 West 19th Street David Zwirner, New York
January 8 - February 14, 2015

January 8th to February 14th David Zwirner presented new work by Swedish artist Mamma Andersson. Andersson was born in 1962 in Luleå, Sweden. She studied from 1986 to 1993 at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where she continues to live and work. The exhibit showcased the artist latest body of paintings and included two murals that were made specifically for the exhibit. She paints pictorially and her images seem surreal, but as if taken from a state or performance. The subject matter includes melancholic landscapes and private interiors.
Theatrical and domestic fictions construct an interior setting that reference domesticity and femininity. We are over-shadowed by giant characters that are based on toys or dolls. The representation of dolls appear throughout the show whether it is up-front, like her dolls that reveal their nature with their peg joints, or if it is more subtle such as seen in her painting “behind the curtain” which shows two female dancers whose bodies are stiff like a wooden dolls.

Her paintings seem heavily influenced by the painting process. In one work you will find areas that have washes of paint, or heavy and thick application of paint, or stark graphic lines. Her broad range of techniques is a testament to her engagement with the process. Translating her paintings to murals is a recent development, one that is complex and exciting. Entering the gallery to be over-whelmed by her murals is an experience that leaves the viewer challenging their familiarity with every-day objects (such as dolls).

5 comments:

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  3. I really enjoyed your review of Mamma Andersson's work Behind the Curtain. It is very necessary to point out her background in your first paragraph since her work has a lot of domesticities. In your second paragraph, it is very well observed that you mentioned about she uses feminine objects such as dolls, curtain and female dances to refer the femininity in her work. In third paragraph, I found a little bit difficult to understand how her mural installation relates to her experimental approach in painting process? Maybe the information you pointed out such as washes of paints, heavy and thick application of paint or stark graphic lines doesn't convince me enough to believe that those might be the clues changes her to try mural. I would question if there is any other reasons make her change.

    Good job!
    Lu :>

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  4. Hi Rachel,
    I like your objective analysis of the exhibit. It looks like you paid attention to the artist's image-making process, particularly her techniques, and not just the image created. As a person who barely paints, I envy that you can see this. If there was one thing I wish you would change, it would be adding more about the scale, since it is such a big part on the overwhelming quality of the murals. Question whether its effectiveness would change if it was a different size maybe. Other than that, there are a few typo that can be fixed. Check plus

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