Swedish painter Kent Iwemyr's debut New York solo exhibition on view at Anna Zorina Gallery

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Swedish painter Kent Iwemyr's debut New York solo exhibition on view at Anna Zorina Gallery
Kent Iwemyr, To the Nightingale, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 23.5 x 27 inches.



NEW YORK, NY.- Anna Zorina Gallery is presenting The Red House in the Woods, a debut New York solo exhibition of Swedish painter Kent Iwemyr. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery.

Iwemyr creates his acrylic paintings at a scale that draws viewers close. From this intimate vantage point we see snapshots of Nordic life. Each image is a straightforward observation of both nature and human behavior, captured in the expressive, primitive style that Iwemyr employed in his youth when first starting to paint. He harkens back to the time when he was discovering his surroundings through tactile exploration. The artist, still living in the town in which he was born, continues to take everything in and relays without concern to refine or gloss over details. Naïve glimpses of ordinary occurrences mingle with dark, twisted, sarcastic and ironic humor to transform every day banality into poignant and extraordinary revelations.

The paintings turn a focus onto Kent’s surroundings in Sweden where the landscape is dotted with an abundance of red cottages. The country with its many copper mines had an immense amount of red byproduct dust that, out of resourcefulness, became pervasive style. When mixed with oil, milk, and lime, the pigment cocktail is able to protect wooden beams from the elements and has a clever ability to make homes look more expensive, like they are made of brick. The popularity of the quaint red homes with white trim allowed for the style to spread internationally.

Kent’s red house is idyllically positioned between a channel and woods in a small village. The channel is more than 200 years old as is the house in which he lives with his wife and three cats. In the dense forest next to his home live moose and a lot of other wildlife. In recent years, some wolves and a single bear have established themselves. This forest embodies unknown potential, capable of sustaining an abundance of life while also setting the stage for fierce wilderness to take its course.

Kent’s paintings appear to be small windows looking out from his home. From there we catch glimpses of candid life. Like a memory, the view is from afar, figures in the distance are distilled into the basic essence of their mood. A swipe of the brush for the mouth and daubs for eyes, quick movements that are rich with raw emotion. Seen from slightly above and away casts us as witnesses, never participants. In this way, Kent Iwemyr satisfies our voyeuristic needs by allowing us to feel a part of something. We are able to relate to an unknown person’s sincerity as they act without knowing they are being watched.

The works function as inside jokes that riff on the culture and folklore from the artist’s home country. Just enough alluring nuances are provided as a tease. As day-to-day events unravel with peculiar details, the mundane is transformed into intriguing theatrical representations of life in Sweden. We are offered bird’s eye views of regional rites:

The Northern Championship in Boot Throwing for Unmarried Women is an annual event where woman from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia meet in a small village in the north of Sweden to have fun and compete in odd sports. In the game, women have to throw a boot as far as they can, longest throw wins, simple rules. If they hit a car on the parking lot, doesn't matter. The owners are all bachelors so they don't care! They will only be happy to meet some women for a change.

The Old Gods Still Live shows the raising of the maypole, an integral part of the important occasion of Midsommar celebrated every summer solstice. It is a Pagan tradition that we still have from the time when sacrifices were made to the old gods Odin, Thor and Freyr for blessings of fertility. In those days they would sacrifice everything from small animals to human beings. Today the holiday is celebrated mostly with a lot of beer and booze.

With Fermented Baltic Herring, Iwemyr introduces a sly joke regarding a polarizing Swedish delicacy. It is an old custom for Swedes to eat fermented Baltic herring at least once a year. Some people love the herring and even like the smell of it, while others hate it. The smell is so incredibly putrid that the tin is often opened and eaten outdoors. Here we see two forest men playing five-finger fillet while waiting for their serving of sour fish. By playing the dangerous knife game, they are pursuing unnecessary risk for fun. While this gamble is universally understood, the artist focuses specifically on the length Swedes will go for the glory of overcoming offbeat obstacles even if it means potentially subjecting themselves to pain or sickness.

At first, the imagery is simple and sweeping but upon further inspection, they are closer to your reality than you had anticipated. Iwemyr through instilling his own familiar approachability into each scene is able to transform absurdity into normality and normality into absurdity. His paintings shine a light on the remarkable beauty inherent to the subtle idiosyncrasies of every day life.










Today's News

January 4, 2019

Anastasia Pelias: mama now on view at McNay Art Museum in San Antonio

Beyonce helps Paris Louvre attract record visitor numbers

Editions sale to include an important set of 10 Donald Judd woodcuts

Exhibition explores the arts and culture of the Armenians

Helmut Newton Foundation opens its first exhibition dedicated exclusively to the genre of nude photography

KP Projects exhibits new and lifetime prints by Vivian Maier

Exhibition illustrates the multiple meanings attributed to ruins through the centuries

Solo exhibition of new paintings by Jennifer Packer on view at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Koopman Rare Art to offer the silver-gilt masterpiece The Shield of Achilles at TEFAF Maastricht 2019

Rubell Family Collection presents exhibitions by Purvis Young and new acquistions

Video projection Dark Waves by Johannes Bosgra at concert in Miami

Joel Quadracci named President of Milwaukee Art Museum Board of Trustees

Wythe Hotel announces 2019 Artist Residency Program

Bruneau & Co. to hold vintage pop culture auction, January 12

Gallery NAGA opens the new year with exhibition of works by Jeremy Foss and Robert Ferrandini

Locks Gallery opens exhibition of works by Jennifer Bartlett

Linda Mieko Allen's Supernatura, work of the past four years, on view at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

Art on the Underground presents a major public commission by British artist Linder

'Visiting: Logan MacDonald' on view at Grenfell Art Gallery

Swedish painter Kent Iwemyr's debut New York solo exhibition on view at Anna Zorina Gallery

Exhibition at Tommy Simoens gallery presents five projects by Rirkrit Tiravanija

Times Art Center Berlin highlights the incredible variety of video art created in the Pearl River Delta

Exhibition at Tarrawarra Museum of Art pairs the work of Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester

Broadway hits Iran with unique take on 'Les Miserables'




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful