Nike Åkerberg: You being a ghost, I be dipping my feet, 2018, Oil on canvas, 109 x 107,5 cm
It is summer in the series by Nike Åkerberg and people are chasing nature through artificial environments. But an underlying apocalypse – the nature’s uncontrolled forces – is luring beneath the depicted scenes. An excessive use of yellow oil heats up the temperature. The cracks in the layered paint and dark skies foreshadow bad weather. Though, for now, it is quiet before the storm. Unlike Åkerberg, Martha Svihus confiscates the real and strictly controls the scenery in her images. In the work Regression: up to its neck in fruitfulness hyperreal elements becomes absurd but seductive. The depicted figures are well known to the gaze but seem alien at a second glance. It is the seasickness after the storm – an opposite maneuver.
Nike Åkerberg (f. 1986, SE) graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Arts in 2017, and has a.o. participated in following exhibitions: Kunstudstilling LF, Ridehuset, Lolland, 2018, duo exhibition with Hanna Una Holmquist, Mos, Malmö 2018, Masters Salon, Lange Zaal, Antwerpen, 2017, Martin Luther, Vejle Kunstmuseum, Vejle, Art books, Copenhagen, Museumsbygningen, 2016, Svenska Ambassaden, 2016, Casablanca Billboard Festival, Casablanca, 2015, Lige i Skabet, Svends Bibliotek, 2014, Fuck young painters, Galleri Tom Christoffersen, 2013. She is represented in the collection of Vejle Kunstmuseum and has public works in Fredrikssund og Malmö. Recently she received Ellen Trotzigs Maleristipendium from Malmö Konstmuseer.
Martha Svihus (f. 1986, NO), MFA and Cand.art.perit, The Royal Danish Academy of Arts, 2010-2016. Solo exhibition: Don’t mind cosmos, Galleri Nybro, 2017. Selected group shows: Duo exhibition w. Jonas Theis, Cafe Blomsten, 2017, TRANSFER * TRANSITION * TRANSLATION, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, 2017, Unge Inviterede, LNM (Landsforeningen Norske Malere), Oslo, 2017, Group (15), Galleri Tom Christoffersen, 2015. Her works are a.o. acquired by The Danish Arts Foundation.
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Nike Åkerberg: My pool was a magician, 2018, Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Regression, up to its neck in fruitfulness, 2018, Oil on canvas, 170 x 140 cm