Art in the Library: 2022–2023

Jan Groth, Kristján Gudmundsson, Gabriel Orozco, Gunnel Wåhlstrand
May 6, 2022 - June 18, 2023

Jan Groth

Jan Groth was born in 1938 and lived and worked in Oslo. Groth is considered a leading artist of his generation in Scandinavia, with numerous exhibitions in museums and institutions throughout the world. Groth has, through his long artistic practice, exclusively and continuously explored the relationship between the line and the picture plane. First and foremost in drawings executed with crayon on paper, but also in monumental tapestries that was made in collaboration with his former partner, Benedikte Groth (1933-2015) in Copenhagen. Since the late 1980s he had brought the line into three-dimensional space with bronze sculptures spanning the intimate scale of the drawings, to the monumental in several public works. Groth literally weaved together the immediate with the gradual; the drawing on paper extracted in an instance is through a highly labour-intensive process transcribed into the structure of the tapestry or through the meticulous manipulation of wax in his models for the bronze sculptures. His artistic idiom can be described as restrained expressionism, with a profound sensibility wherein the line’s seemingly seismographic recordings appear to visualize nuances and energies registered from within. A few of his solo exhibitions include Linear Tapestries, Minneapolis Institute of Art (2018) and The Festival Exhibition, Bergen Kunsthall (2017). His works are represented in the collections of numerous museums around the world, among others: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; The Tate Gallery, London; Musée National d´Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm and The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. Photo: Morten Andenæs / Courtesy Galleri Riis.

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Kristján Gudmundsson

Kristján Gudmundsson was born in 1941, he lives and works in Iceland. He is self-taught artist and has gained a position as one of the most respected Icelandic living artists. He has exhibited widely, mostly in Scandinavia and Europe. Solo exhibitions includes San Diego, USA (2010); American Scandinavian Foundation, New York (1986); National Gallery of Iceland (2009) and Rooseum, Malmö (1994). Among recent group shows include Ends of the Earth – Land Art to 1974 at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2012). Gudmundsson received First price at the Carnegie Art Award 2009. Photo: Lilja Birgisdóttir.

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Gunnel Wåhlstrand

Gunnel Wåhlstrand lives and works in Stockholm. In 2003 she graduated from the Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm. She has been honoured with a number of grants from prestigious organizations including The Swedish Arts Grant and the Maria Bonnier Dahlins Stiftelse. In 2006 she had a solo exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall and in 2008 she completed a permanent commission for the entrance of the Scania and Blekinge Court of Appeal, in Malmö, Sweden. Wåhlstrand has had solo exhibitions in numerous institutions such as The Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden (2013); Uppsala Art Museum, Uppsala, Sweden (2013); Parasol Unit for Contemporary Art (with Cecilia Edefalk), London (2011). Her recent group exhibitions include Tendencies 2013. Tenderness, Galleri F15, Moss, Norway (2013); Nordic-by-New York, ASF Scandinavia House, New York, USA (2011); 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2010); Samtidigt: Svenskt måleri på 2000-talet, Borås konstmuseum, Borås, Sweden and Passagen Linköpings konsthall (2009). Her works are held in prestigious private and public collections including The Culture Board of Gothenburg, Sweden; Uppsala County Council, Sweden; Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden; Malmö Art Museum, Malmö, Sweden; Maria Bonnier Dahlins Stiftelse, Stockholm, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; The National Public Art Council of Sweden; The Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden; The UBS Art Collection, Zürich, Switzerland; Uppsala Art Museum, Uppsala, Sweden among others.

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Gabriel Orozco

Gabriel Orozco was born in 1962 in Jalapa. He currently lives and works mainly in Tokyo and Mexico City. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Orozco gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and expanding later to include painting. His work blurs the boundaries of art with everyday realities and often balances complex geometry with organic materials and elements of chance. Orozco has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo (2015); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2014); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2012); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico (2006); The Serpentine Gallery, London (2004); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2000) and a major retrospective which traveled from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland, the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Tate Modern, London (2009-2011). Gabriel Orozco has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Honoris Causa Award, University of the Arts, Havana (2015); the BlueOrange Prize (2006) and the DAAD Artist in Residence, Berlin (1995). He has participated in the Venice Biennale several times (2017, 2005, 2003, 1993) and documenta (2002, 1997). In 2019 it was announced by the President of Mexico that Orozco would, in conjunction with the Secretariat of Culture, be overseeing the construction of a major new cultural center within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. Photo: Enrique Badulescu.

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