dirt. Moa Alskog, Laurence Sturla, Astrid Svangren. January 31 - March 8, 2025

Moa Alskog’s practice unfolds around the human relation to nature. She builds worlds with images and text, in dialog with other artists, historians and scientists. Often by making the small, big. Currently, Alskog works on portraits of soil-microorganisms. The vital lives that live in the dirt that cover our planet. The portraits are part of an ongoing project dealing with the idea of the Utopia. Method, material and motif are equally important in the artist’s work. Alskog (re-)uses the material she finds around her, for example wasted insects net, vinyl floor as canvas, plastic bag frames, images and ideas. She regards the materials as meaning-bearing elements and the provenance of those significantly influence her choice of method and motif. 

Moa Alskog (SE, 1985) holds a MFA from The Danish Art Academy of Fine Arts (2016). Past exhibitions include: Lagune Ouest (Copenhagen), Ugo experimental platform  (Malmö), Alta Art Space (Malmö), Amager Skulpturpark (Copenhagen), Nikolaj Kunsthal (Copenhagen), Loggia (Munich), AGA (Copenhagen), Havebiennalen (Copenhagen), and Elisabeth Arts Foundation (New York).

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Laurence Sturla’s visual language of his ceramic sculptures are part industrial, mechanical, part engine, part architecture. They draw heavily from Sturla’s upbringing in Swindon, once part of the thriving industrial revolution in England but now one of many English towns lined with empty factories. Sturla’s post-industrialist machines illustrate the fallacy between technological precision and our (in)ability to recall and visually digest space, function or logic.

Laurence Sturla (UK, 1992) holds a MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2023). Past exhibitions include: Goswell Road (Paris), Project Native Informant (London), Gemäldegalerie (Vienna), Carbon 12 (Dubai), Neue Kunstverein Wien (Vienna), Loggia (Munich), Belvedere Museum (Vienna), Haus Wien (Vienna), Gianna Manhattan (Vienna), Museion (Bolzano), Pina (Vienna), mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Vienna), MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst (Vienna), and Museum Moderne Salzburg (Salzburg).

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Astrid Svangren’s painterly work is multidimensional. Her paintings relate to the limitations the stretcher provides, but they also expand three dimensionally into their surroundings, and move from ceilings and wooden constructions. The spatial paintings can be interpreted as an extension of the traditional painterly process, and the materiality differ from tulle to fish net and cellophane. In her artistry, Svangren avoids the expected and she lets the working process be portrayed as part of the finished work. The outcome of this somewhat organic process are paintings and spatial installations that are in constant movement and that dwell in a borderland, both in regards to their material and to their subject matter. The works speak of memories and dreams and very elegantly challenge all the senses of the viewer. 

Astrid Svangren (SE, 1972) holds a MFA from Malmö Art Academy (1998). Past exhibitions include: Den Frie (Copenhagen), Quartz Studio, (Turin) Kohta, (Helsinki), Museo de la Ciudad Querétaro (Santiago de Querétaro), Gl. Holtegaard, (Holte), Moderna Museet (Malmö), Moderna Museet, (Stockholm), Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm) Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö), Kiasma, (Helsinki), Wanås Konst (Wanås), Knislinge Artipelag (Stockholm), Nordiska Akvarellmuseet (Skärhamn), The Margulies Collection (Miami), Galerie Christophe Gaillard (Paris), Tracy Williams, Ltd (New York), Maria Stenfors (London), Christian Andersen (Copenhagen), KUNSTHALLE São Paulo (São Paulo), and KRAFT (Bergen).

All photos by: Malle Madsen

dirt. Moa Alskog, Laurence Sturla, Astrid Svangren. January 31 - March 8, 2025

Moa Alskog’s practice unfolds around the human relation to nature. She builds worlds with images and text, in dialog with other artists, historians and scientists. Often by making the small, big. Currently, Alskog works on portraits of soil-microorganisms. The vital lives that live in the dirt that cover our planet. The portraits are part of an ongoing project dealing with the idea of the Utopia. Method, material and motif are equally important in the artist’s work. Alskog (re-)uses the material she finds around her, for example wasted insects net, vinyl floor as canvas, plastic bag frames, images and ideas. She regards the materials as meaning-bearing elements and the provenance of those significantly influence her choice of method and motif. 

Moa Alskog (SE, 1985) holds a MFA from The Danish Art Academy of Fine Arts (2016). Past exhibitions include: Lagune Ouest (Copenhagen), Ugo experimental platform  (Malmö), Alta Art Space (Malmö), Amager Skulpturpark (Copenhagen), Nikolaj Kunsthal (Copenhagen), Loggia (Munich), AGA (Copenhagen), Havebiennalen (Copenhagen), and Elisabeth Arts Foundation (New York).

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Laurence Sturla’s visual language of his ceramic sculptures are part industrial, mechanical, part engine, part architecture. They draw heavily from Sturla’s upbringing in Swindon, once part of the thriving industrial revolution in England but now one of many English towns lined with empty factories. Sturla’s post-industrialist machines illustrate the fallacy between technological precision and our (in)ability to recall and visually digest space, function or logic.

Laurence Sturla (UK, 1992) holds a MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2023). Past exhibitions include: Goswell Road (Paris), Project Native Informant (London), Gemäldegalerie (Vienna), Carbon 12 (Dubai), Neue Kunstverein Wien (Vienna), Loggia (Munich), Belvedere Museum (Vienna), Haus Wien (Vienna), Gianna Manhattan (Vienna), Museion (Bolzano), Pina (Vienna), mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Vienna), MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst (Vienna), and Museum Moderne Salzburg (Salzburg).

*

Astrid Svangren’s painterly work is multidimensional. Her paintings relate to the limitations the stretcher provides, but they also expand three dimensionally into their surroundings, and move from ceilings and wooden constructions. The spatial paintings can be interpreted as an extension of the traditional painterly process, and the materiality differ from tulle to fish net and cellophane. In her artistry, Svangren avoids the expected and she lets the working process be portrayed as part of the finished work. The outcome of this somewhat organic process are paintings and spatial installations that are in constant movement and that dwell in a borderland, both in regards to their material and to their subject matter. The works speak of memories and dreams and very elegantly challenge all the senses of the viewer. 

Astrid Svangren (SE, 1972) holds a MFA from Malmö Art Academy (1998). Past exhibitions include: Den Frie (Copenhagen), Quartz Studio, (Turin) Kohta, (Helsinki), Museo de la Ciudad Querétaro (Santiago de Querétaro), Gl. Holtegaard, (Holte), Moderna Museet (Malmö), Moderna Museet, (Stockholm), Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm) Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö), Kiasma, (Helsinki), Wanås Konst (Wanås), Knislinge Artipelag (Stockholm), Nordiska Akvarellmuseet (Skärhamn), The Margulies Collection (Miami), Galerie Christophe Gaillard (Paris), Tracy Williams, Ltd (New York), Maria Stenfors (London), Christian Andersen (Copenhagen), KUNSTHALLE São Paulo (São Paulo), and KRAFT (Bergen).

All photos by: Malle Madsen