FIAC – International Art Fair, Paris 2017: Anna Bjerger & Jockum Nordström

We are pleased to present works of Anna Bjerger and Jockum Nordström at the 44th edition of the prestigious art fair FIAC. FIAC hosts a carefully balanced selection of leading international galleries in the iconic Grand Palais in Paris. 

Anna Bjerger transforms forgotten and anonymous images from outdated photographs through a fluid and painterly touch. Both intuitive and strategic she uses her medium as a means to explore and dissect specific qualities within her chosen image. The flowing and assured handling of the paint reveals the physicality and mood of her subjects by allowing her to emphasise certain elements and push them far from their photographic starting point. Although the images are diverse, the working process allows themes and ideas to emerge that form a cohesive thread that runs through the works.

Bjerger’s pictures are like existential snapshots, for even the most open and straightforward motifs are somehow enig- matic, even the greatest joy is part of a greater gravity, that no one — neither Anna Bjerger herself, me or anyone else who sees her pictures — can say what it is: only the pictures can tell us, that is why they were painted, to show us a secret, not to reveal it. 

Extracts from a text by Karl Ove Knausgård in the new book Familiar Shadows on Anna Bjerger's art. (The book will be available for purchase at the fair).

Anna Bjerger (b.1973) lives and works outside Älmhult, Sweden. She studied at St. Martin’s School of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art in London, UK. She has exhibited in Sweden and internationally since 2000. Selected solo exhibitions: Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Milan, Italy (2014), Fullersta Gård, Stockholm, Sweden, (2013), Paradise Row, London, UK (2012, 2010), David Risley, Copenhagen, Denmark (2012, 2008), Växjö Konsthall, Sweden (2012), Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2011, 2009), Peter Bergman, Stockholm, Sweden (2010, 2008). Her work can be found in collections at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands, Zabludowicz Collection and Tishman Speyer Collection among others. 

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In recent years Jockum has returned to his drawing, which is the foundation of his artistry. The new work focuses more on memories and less on observations. It is a restrained, uncluttered imagery of contemplation and retrospection.

Alongside the drawings Jockum Nordstrom has worked with paper and cardboard sculptures.
Whereas earlier works had a clear connection to architecture, these can be seen as more independent. In a few sprawling experiments, he has joined cardboard parts to make spatial drawings, and in some smaller box-shaped sculptures, he has painted the surfaces with crayon and pencil. It is a world without words where the line between futility and reality is erased.

Though he’s actually a middle-aged man, Nordström makes work that looks like the invention of a late Victorian child with scant formal training in art. Disjointing things further is his wonky feel for time; it seems to have paused in a fit of despair somewhere between the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1893) and the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll.

[…] This imaginative extravagance can be accomplished by humble methods. Nordström’s materials have a quiet pathos, bound up with their meek insignificance and the delicate things they create. 

Extracts from a text by Charlie Fox in Frieze, 2015.

Jockum Nordström (b.1963) is one of the most established artists in Sweden. He has exhibited regularly from the beginning of the 90s, and got a international recognition in 2000. Moderna Museet in Stockholm arranged his solo exhibition A Stick in the Wood in 2005. During 2013 the exhibition All I Have Learned and Forgotten Again toured from LAM, Lille to Camden Arts Centre, London. Jockum Nordström is represented in the collections of MoMA, New York, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, LAM, Lille, SFMoMA, San Francisco, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Hammer Museum, LA, Magasin III, Stockholm, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, S.M.A.K. Gent et al. He is represented by Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, David Zwirner, New York/London and Zeno X, Antwerp. In 2018 he will do a solo exhibition at CAC, New Orleans.

Welcome to visit our booth #1.F02!

Opening hours:
Wednesday 18 October, by special invitation.
Thursday 19 september: 12 am–8 pm
Friday 20 september: 12 am–8 pm
Saturday 21 september: 12 am–7 pm
Sunday 22 september: 12 am–7 pm

Address:
Avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris
Métro: lines 1 and 13 Champs-Élysées Clemenceau

Entrance:
Full-fare ticket 37 €
Reduced fare* 20 €
Children under 12: free entry
Daily pass + FIAC catalogue 60 €

Please contact us for more information and visuals.
Images will be available soon at www.artsy.net

During the fair you can reach us via e-mail or at +46 708 106 906 (Magnus).

For more info please visit www.fiac.com