S-CHANF.- Stephen Friedman Gallery is presenting an exhibition of new works by Swedish artists Mamma Andersson and Andreas Eriksson. The two-person show opened on Tuesday 6 July at 107 S-chanf, Switzerland and runs until Sunday 29 August. The presentation comprises paintings, tapestries and works on paper by two artists renowned for their fascination with landscape and nature.
On view for the first time are multi-panel works and several new oil and acrylic paintings by Andreas Eriksson. These works embrace what seem like contradictions, depicting at the same time a lightness and a heaviness, illusion and reality. Featuring subtle earthy tones that alternately merge and collide, Eriksson employs translucent washes of soft greys and startling blues to reflect his natural habitat. The exhibition also includes a new large-scale work from the ‘Semaphore’ series, which captures a Nordic vista using distinct colour combinations and textures. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, the vertical and horizontal shapes and brushstrokes echo the nuances in the landscape as well as the passing of time. A group of Eriksson’s tapestries, created from undyed linen yarns in subtly different hues, offer another unique reflection of the artist’s daily rural surroundings in Medelplana, Sweden.
Mamma Andersson is widely recognised for her depictions of apparently timeless landscapes, combined with elements loosely based on Nordic figurative painting and folk art. On display are several new works created especially for the exhibition. A major new painting, ‘Untitled (Long Landscape)’, shows a large-scale landscape using a striking colour palette of sandy pink, chartreuse greens and dark greys. Low level clouds float on the edge of a mysterious lake while earthy green fauna in the foreground provides the focal point. The painting illustrates key characteristics of Andersson’s compositions, which are often very expressive and ethereal. The artist’s evocative use of pictorial space and her juxtapositions of thick paint and textured washes remain uniquely her own. A major solo exhibition of Andersson’s work will open at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark in June.
The exhibition coincides with a collaborative presentation between Stephen Friedman Gallery and 8 Holland Street at NOMAD St. Moritz, set in Chesa Planta, a historic mansion. This show features works by Mamma Andersson, Andreas Eriksson and Stephan Balkenhol.
