Alex Colard

ABOUT the artist
Dina Isæus-Berlin is a Swedish abstract painter. Her work asks questions about different types of consciousness, both intellectual but foremost spiritual and intuitive, and how various outcomes can be reached through altered states of mind.
In her compositions, the large gesture of the brushstroke appears as a figure often superimposed onto detailed, patterned grounds. The stricter fields, made in a different pace and state than the fast gestures, is juxtaposed against the flowing movements to either challenge, highlight or support them. The combination of intuitive and planned layers is a vibrant rhythm visible in the final painting. She is exploring the act of painting itself, continuously learning and unlearning the movements of the brush. By emptying the predefined conceptions of rational thought, a more truthful expression of the spirit can be brought to life. Coming from the hand of an unoccupied mind, her paintings show the marks of a body in motion. It is a practice in close conversation with Isæus-Berlins metaphysical search for the principles of how to live.
Dina Isæus-Berlin, born 1991, lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm. Isæus-Berlin has been exhibited at Fullersta Gård, Nicolai Wallner Gallery, Copenhagen, Färgfabriken, Liljevalchs, Konstnärshuset and at Gerichtshöfe, Berlin, with Enter Art Foundation. She has been awarded with grants from both Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and Swedish Arts Grants Committee, among others.
https://dinaisaeusberlin.com/

ABOUT the exhibition
Wetterling Gallery is pleased to announce Star Verse, Dina Isæus-Berlin’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.
In Star Verse, Isæus-Berlin presents a powerful suite of ten large scale oil paintings, all 180 x 180 cm. As the exhibition title implies, Star Verse displays a series of lyrical works, derived from the myths of the sky, both ancient and contemporary. The abstract paintings are each connected to the celestial bodies in our solar system and poetically plays with the notion of a planet as a metaphor, used to explain events beyond our control.
“In a time when humanity is in an existential crisis due to the misuse of our own planet, and we as species may see the very end ahead – space seems to me almost a comfort. Not only has it been a human projecting surface for thousands of years, but in the story of the universe, we have only existed for a second and it will carry on long after we are gone. I find that reassuring.”
Isæus-Berlin’s work are process-driven investigations, where her aim is to reinvent every painting within a set protocol. The starting point for the works in this suite has been the idea of a planet as a symbol. Her images bear marks of automatic gestures, a subconscious unfolding on the panels. Isæus-Berlin then highlight and challenge the large, calligraphic brushstrokes by juxtaposing them to layers of more detailed nature. Her compositions are defined by a kinesthetic energy, spatial ambiguities and a compelling tension between the different layers – they are at once organic and geometric.
As an extension of the exhibition, Star Verse is accompanied by a publication featuring an essay by Håkan Nilsson, art critic and Professor of Arts at Södertörns University.
Dina Isæus-Berlin, born 1991, lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm. Isæus-Berlin has been exhibited at Fullersta Gård, Nicolai Wallner Gallery, Copenhagen, Färgfabriken, Liljevalchs, Konstnärshuset and at Gerichtshöfe, Berlin, with Enter Art Foundation. She has been awarded with grants from both Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and Swedish Arts Grants Committee, among others.

ABOUT the gallery
Wetterling Gallery is one of the leading galleries for contemporary art in Scandinavia, with a dynamic program of both highly internationally acclaimed artists, and young upcoming artists from Sweden. With a unique and playful entrance to the art world, Wetterling Gallery stands for quality and relevance in the present. We make art available for a curious audience.
Founded in 1978, we consider ourselves a long-term partner for our artists, collectors, institutions and the general public that plays a significant role for the development of the both the local and the international art scene. With a history of bringing international artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Frank Stella to Sweden we are today also presenting Swedish artists to the international art scene. Our vision is to provide a platform for dialogue and meetings between different forms of artistic expression, and between people.
The gallery arranges six exhibitions annually in the main space in Stockholm, and around the same number in the project space that was inaugurated in 2015, allowing the gallery program to be more dynamic. Wetterling Gallery also have a showroom in Gothenburg, where a curated selection of our collections is shown on regular basis.
Please note that out exhibition programme is researched and developed well in advance and we are unable to accept unsolicited approches for meetings, exhibitions or projects.
https://www.wetterlinggallery.com/