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We are pleased to present Elin Odentia’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, VISION, featuring a new series of paintings.Odentia works in the space between figurative and abstract painting. Over the years, a shift towards abstraction has become evident through the reduction of shapes and outlines. In her new show, VISION—still distinctly recognisable as ‘Odentiesk’—the work features a softer colour palette with muted tones of blue, pink, yellow, and red. Often working in a portrait format, Odentia allows her motifs—structures and solid forms—to pose for the viewer.
In her acclaimed 2023 gallery exhibition Interlude (blue), Odentia explored motifs that appeared freed and elevated from the ground, in contrast to her earlier work. In VISION, her paintings depict objects both resting on the ground and floating in mid-air, suggesting different states of mind, agency, or time. The larger works are contrasted with miniature paintings, which bring a dynamic quality to the exhibition space and echo Odentia’s early fascination with icons, offering moments of intimacy and solitude between the viewer and the painting.
The exhibition title VISION refers to both Odentia’s creative process and the act of seeing. The gaze has always been a central element in her practice and in the experience of her work. Even the word VISION itself forms a shape that visually resonates with certain structures in her paintings—particularly in IV, which graphically resembles the title, as does Vision with its double “I”s.
In simplicity, we often find the strongest ideas and expressions—a reduced, concentrated form. For Odentia, such compositions come closest to her original vision—the visual idea—that typically emerges at the beginning of her process. In her evolving practice, gradual abstraction brings her work closer to a core or origin, imbuing it with a spiritual or religious dimension.
Elin Odentia (b. 1990 in Ödsmål) holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm and a BFA from University College of Arts, Craft & Design, Stockholm. Odentia has exhibited at Art Brussels, MARKET Art Fair, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, Uppsala Art Museum, Körbärsgården, Gotland, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Galleri Flach, Stockholm and Galleri 54, Gothenburg. She was awarded the scholarship of Anna-Lisa Thomson Till Minne foundation in 2019 and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s working grants in 2020, 2022 and 2024. She is represented in the collections of Uppsala Art Museum, Ståhl Collection, Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm konst, Region Uppsala, Region Kalmar län, Region Dalarna, Uppsala Municipality, Swedish Association for Art (SAK) and Vinge Art Collection, as well as important private American and Italian collections.
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We are pleased to present Summer Seeds, featuring a selection of new works by Lovisa Ringborg, also included in her acclaimed solo exhibition Blindgångare at Norrtälje Konsthall (on view to 20 September).
In Ringborg’s silver gelatin photographs—and in those using an infrared filter—we encounter an intimate and enclosed world where external and internal realities merge. Much has been said about Ringborg’s art in terms of her photographs’ ability to reflect an inner landscape, mirroring the subconscious mind. She has indeed developed a visual language uniquely her own.
A door becomes a portal into an unknown darkness. The work Moonshine, which refers both to the moon and to moonshine (illicit spirits), alludes to transformation and to entering altered states. The figurine has collapsed, and the summer flowers on the windowsill have withered, shedding their seeds for the next season. Something has ended, and something else is beginning. The Vanitas motif recurs, but in a personal interpretation that evokes the child’s experience of their immediate surroundings—where the contrasts between darkness and light are ever-present.
Over the years, the painterly quality of Lovisa Ringborg’s work has become even more pronounced. It is tempting to compare her new still lifes and interiors to 17th-century Dutch painting—the Northern European tradition that, at the time, was more concerned with the description of the world than with the rhetorical persuasion of the Italian Baroque. Possessing a sharp eye for detail and a gift for striking composition, Ringborg gently guides the viewer toward a heightened state of awareness. The seemingly mundane elements in her work acquire meanings that—whether we recognize it or not—are deeply indebted to art history. At the same time, Lovisa Ringborg achieves a delicate balance between an underlying sense of unease and quiet wonder.
Reviews for Blindgångare at Norrtälje konsthall:
‘Återkommande är även upplevelsen av ett mellanrum; utrymmet mellan det öppna och slutna, det kända och okända. Som hennes foton av interiörer, till ytan alldagliga och hemtama rum, men som därtill rymmer skeva och dolda dimensioner.’ Sofia Edgren, Dagens Nyheter
‘Det är en bildvärld som tränger sig på, ur förborgade rum såväl inom oss som från världen utanför. Likt en blindgångare som exploderar kan den väcka oss när som helst ur slumrandets sköna ro. Ringborgs installationer må vara drömlika, men de är allt annat än sövande.’ Otto Ruin, Svenska Dagbladet
‘…visas en rad foton som har mycket av vanitas-stilleben över sig, av skörhet… I alla finns en stillhet och en tomhet, ibland med en inramning; en perfekt oval eller ett öga i en cirkel.’ Eva Asp, Konsten
Lovisa Ringborg (b. 1979 in Linköping) holds an MFA from the School of Photography at Gothenburg University. Ringborg's works have been presented at Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Norrtälje konsthall, Fotografiska Stockholm, Norrköping Art Museum, Varbergs Konsthall, Skellefteå Konsthall, Alma Löv Museum, Vänersborgs Konsthall, Gotlands Museum, Hasselblad Center, Bonniers Konsthall, Sven Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, Passagen/Linköpings Konsthall, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, as well as in exhibitions in Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, USA and South Korea. She was awarded the San Michele Scholarship from Hasselblad Foundation and the Edstrandska Foundation Scholarship in 2012, the Victor Scholarship from the Hasselblad Foundation in 2010. Ringborg is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet, Norrköping Art Museum, Borås Art Museum, Hasselblad Foundation, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Holland, Skellefteå Konsthall, Alma Löv Museum of Unexp. Art, the Public Art Agency Sweden, Region Stockholm, Stockholm konst and Public Art Agency Sweden, as well as in various private collections in Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, USA and South Korea.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Hudiksvallsgatan 8, 11330 Stockholm, Sweden, Hudiksvallsgatan 8, SE-113 30 Stockholm, Sverige, Stockholm, Sweden
