Charlotte Gyllenhammar

Charlotte Gyllenhammar was born in 1963 in Lerum, outside Gothenburg in Sweden. She got her education at Hovedskous målarskola in Gothenburg, the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, and the Royal College of Art in London. In 1995 she was appointed as professor at Malmö Art Academy.

Gyllenhammar got her breakthrough with the piece Die for you (Dö för dig) in 1993. Above the well trafficked road Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Gyllenhammar suspended a 120 years-old oak tree upside down. Since then, the upside down-perspective is a recurring theme in her art. Other recurring themes in Gyllenhammar’s oeuvre is the questioning of identity, femininity and beauty, the act of falling and an exploration of the borders between outer and inner space.

Originally trained as a painter, Gyllenhammar has come to focus on film and three-dimensional installations. Surrealism is an apparent influence, but not so much in the imagery, but instead in the usage of disorientation and Gyllenhammar’s ability to suggest alternative states.

Among other places Gyllenhammar have been exhibited at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Skåne, Sweden; Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden; International Sculpture Biennale, Bad Homburg and Frankfurt RheinMain, Germany; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. Her work is represented in both public and private collections in countries such as Sweden, the United States of America, Germany, France and Italy.

Photo: Bruno Ehrs.