Alex Colard

ABOUT the artists

Idun Baltzersen (b. 1987 in Trondheim, Norway) is educated at the School of the Arts in Bergen and Konstfack in Stockholm. Since her graduation in 2014 she lives and works in Stockholm. She works across borders, monumentally and spatially with drawing and graphics in different forms – on paper, fabric and wood. In 2014 she received The Anna-Lisa Thomson grant and an exhibition at Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden. The following year she was one of the recipients of the Fredrik Roos grant who exhibited at Moderna Museet in Malmö, Sweden. In 2016 she received the Bernadotte grant from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which involved a studio and exhibition in the academy building. Artist’s website: www.idunbaltzersen.com

ABOUT the exhibition

The exhibition The Eyes of Others by Idun Baltzersen opens without a reception on Saturday and Sunday November 14 & 15, and runs through December 19. The gallery is currently open regular hours. Please visit our website or follow us on social media for up to date information. We are following the guidelines from the Public Health Agency of Sweden. A limited number of visitors (10) will be allowed in the gallery. We therefore kindly ask you to have patience if waiting time arises on certain occasions.

We have the pleasure to present Idun Baltzersens second solo exhibition at the gallery. The Eyes of Others presents new textile collages from woodcuts and painted wooden assemblages.

In the new exhibition Idun Baltzersen has focused on a feeling of inadequacy in an increasingly complicated world. The body of work deal with the difficulty of navigating by one’s own moral compass in dark times with an uncertain future and how this affects us as individuals and as a group. Baltzersen bases her work both on personal experiences and on what is currently happening in society. She examines the interaction between people, the sense of exclusion and the willingness to fit in.

I think the core of the new works is about a shame, of not being a decent person. To feel guilty for a lack of commitment to the chaos that prevails in the present.

Idun Baltzersen has explored the possibilities and limitations of the woodcuts for many years. The work process is important and visible even in the finished works. She cuts, chops and carves her pictures directly on large plywood boards and then prints the pictures by hand on textile. The physical resistance in the material loads the works with significance. The motifs are often portraits of individuals with a focus on body language and gestures. These figures constitute the basic material for the collages and assemblages shown in the exhibition. The printed textiles are cut into pieces and sewn together into monumental collages. The carved plywood boards are sawn apart and joined together in painted assemblages. The result are dense, composite compositions and stagings where the individuals are placed in new constellations and into larger contexts.

The exhibition opens without a reception on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 & 15, 12–6 pm.

Idun Baltzersen was born in 1987 in Trondheim, Norway. She was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen and Konstfack in Stockholm. Since graduating in 2014, she has lived and worked in Stockholm. In recent years, she has had a large number of exhibitions at galleries and institutions, especially in Sweden and Norway. In 2014, she was awarded the Anna-Lisa Thomson Grant and an exhibition at Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden. The following year she was one of the recipients of the Fredrik Roos grant who exhibited at Moderna Museet in Malmö, Sweden. In 2016 she received the Bernadotte grant from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which involved a studio and exhibition in the academy building. Her work can be found in the collections of e.g. Magasin III, Stockholm, Uppsala Art Museum and Västerås Art Museum. Her work is at the moment presented in the exhibition Signature Women at Artipelag in Gustavsberg, Sweden.

During the first weekend we are open also on Sunday November 15, 12–6 pm,
as we are part of Gallery Weekend Stockholm.

ABOUT the gallery

Galleri Magnus Karlsson was founded in 1990. The first 7 years the gallery was located in Västerås, a city 100 km west of Stockholm. It gained a reputation as one of the most interesting contemporary art galleries in Sweden. In August 1997 the gallery moved to Stockholm.

The focus of the gallery is to show the work of emerging artists from Sweden. The gallery has done international art fairs such as Liste, Basel (1999, 2000 and 2001), Art Forum Berlin (2002) Frieze Art Fair, London (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012), The Armory Show, New York (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012), ABC, Berlin (2013 & 2014), Chart, Copenhagen (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018), Frieze Art Fair, New York (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017), Art Berlin (2017) & FIAC, Paris (2017) to present those artists also internationally. The gallery also co-produces exhibitions and projects with museums and galleries.

The gallery is located on the ground floor of The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Fredsgatan 12, Stockholm. In the summer of 2011 Hellvi Kännungs, a project room on the island of Gotland, opened for the public. It will also be a place for artists to meet and work. www.konstakademien.se http://www.gallerimagnuskarlsson.com/