MARTIN WICKSTRÖM
Perfume River
10 April - 10 May
Opening this Thursday April 10, 6-8pm
Mike Weiss Gallery is pleased to present Swedish artist Martin Wickström's inaugural solo exhibition in New York. Blending signage, landscape, figuration, and Sixties paraphernalia into montage, Perfume River
presents twelve oil-on-canvas paintings of cinematic proportion and
enigmatic presence. Composed into scenes and moods with palpable depth,
Wickström's scrapbook-like composition intertwines both collective
memory and introspective biography, reminiscent of our uncertain past
and nostalgic for histories that never were. It is through the artist's
line of sight that new, lingering meaning is given - that, or none at
all.
Wickström
references his extensive world travels, namely an impactful stint in
Vietnam, as well as his history of overlapping paint, found object,
light, audio and installation. His process splices found imagery and
personal photography together, incorporating a kind of chance encounter
that lives on in his photoconceptual realism. Interplay of light and
focus procures an air of mystery, a visual poetry which resonates with
our subconscious and curiosity. Repeating imagery of vibrant plastic
buckets, reflective pools, and retro graphic text in sequence feels
decidedly Pop, even reminiscent of propaganda. Through this fusion of
somewhat dissonant aspects, the works maintain a certain sobriety - an
unmistakable façade that bespeaks a world of meaning lurking beneath the
surface. Materials then assume a nexus of dyads - water both beautiful
and catastrophic; plastic transformative and artificial; perfume
intoxicating and pungent; memory sweet and haunting.
Like
documentary vignettes the paintings converse as puzzle pieces within a
greater whole - each a meditation on our metaphysical quests. To be
sure, Wickström's pseudo-narrative experiments with this lack of overt
meaning, even insertion of meaning - like an empty vessel to be filled,
or a vehicle for broader truths in this fast-changing world of ours.
Martin Wickström
lives and works in Stockholm and is one of the preeminent living
painters in Sweden. His work resides in the collections of the Museum of
Modern Art in Stockholm, The Gothenburg Art Museum, and the Malmö Museum among others. He shows with Angelika Knäpper at Lars Bohman Gallery in Stockholm.
520 W 24 NYC
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