Anna Camner / Toni R. Toivonen / Ann-Sofie Claesson
Galerie Forsblom Stockholm
October 4–November 10, 2019

Opening in the presence of the artists
Thursday October 3, at 5–7pm

Anna Camner: A Plague I Call a Heartbeat

Anna Camner’s paintings invite reflective contemplation. They are precise close-up studies of materials, textures and surfaces, but it is difficult to determine just what these materials are; natural, or fabricated, alive or dead. The paintings are usually small and to perceive their details, they must be seen up close in an intimate encounter with the artwork. With technical brilliance, Camner uses the possibilities of painting to create pictures that could hardly be achieved with a camera.

Camner (b. 1977) graduated from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, in 2003. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo shows in London and New York and recently in a group show in Mumbai, India. In conjunction with the award of the prestigious annual Beckers Art Award in 2017, her work was exhibited at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden.
This is Camner’s first exhibition at Galerie Forsblom.
—

Toni R. Toivonen: The Last Presence

Toivonen’s work stem from a physical process of decay where deceased animals like dogs, hares, cows and horses, are transformed into artworks. Toivonen places the animal onto a sheet of brass and when putting it to its final rest, the procedure becomes a burial. By time, the animals decompose into a nature morte, a still life, where they are captured in their last presence.

Toni R. Toivonen (b. 1987) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, 2016. He has been exhibited extensively in Finland as well as internationally in Berlin, Vienna, London, and New York. His works are included in public collections at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sara Hildén Museum of Art in Finland and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Poland. In 2019 Toivonen received a grant from the Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation.
—

Ann-Sofie Claesson: One Life

Ann-Sofie Claesson’s artistry is anchored in universal themes such as time, memory, identity and family. At Galerie Forsblom a new series of paintings is presented, based on black and white photographs that pays an homage to her grandmother. The surface of the paintings has a texture reminiscent of organic patterns. Fleeting moments and memories linger in Claesson’s works along with the transient nature of time and life.

Claesson (b. 1992) graduated from the University of the Arts Helsinki, 2018. She has exhibited in the studio at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki and in group exhibitions including Liljevalchs, Stockholm, Borås Museum of Modern Art, Sweden and Amos Andersson’s Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland.