Author name: Natalia Muntean

Galerie Nordenhake Marks 50 Years with a Three-City Exhibition Text by Natalia Muntean Galerie Nordenhake opens its 50th anniversary exhibition across all three of its spaces during the first weekend of July. Stockholm from 3 July to 15 August, Berlin from 4 July to 29 August, and Mexico City from 7 July to 22 August. The exhibition, titled Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, 50 years, brings together historical works and new commissions by 84 artists, functioning as both an exhibition and a living archive of the gallery’s history since its founding in Malmö in 1976. Rather than a chronological survey, the show centres on the relationships between artists and the gallery cultivated over five decades, an acknowledgement that the most significant thing a gallery does is not the buildings it occupies or the fairs it attends, but the sustained commitment to artists and ideas over time. Founded by Claes Nordenhake, the gallery moved to Stockholm in 1986, opened a Berlin space in 2000, and established a Mexico City location in 2017. Along the way it gave early shows to Nan Goldin, Mona Hatoum, Antony Gormley, David Hammons, and Jimmie Durham, among others, and has remained a consistent presence at Art Basel since 1978. “I started my gallery in 1976 in Malmö, a relatively small Swedish city back then. In those early years, the interest in our exhibitions was modest, but I believed deeply in the artists and the vision we presented. Fifty years later, this milestone feels both humbling and affirming — a testament to the commitment of our artists, the loyalty of our collectors and visitors, and the many colleagues who have sustained this endeavour,” says Claes Nordenhake, Founder of Galerie Nordenhake. The Stockholm space, designed by Gerda Persson and Bo Pilo, opens with Olle Bærtling’s seminal 1951 painting Univers en formation, paired with John McCracken’s minimalist Plank Black-Blue from 1985. Works by Donald Judd, Richard Serra, and Antony Gormley, all made during pivotal periods in the artists’ careers, are also on view, alongside photographs from the late 1990s by Dawoud Bey and Nan Goldin, including Goldin’s Ulrika, Stockholm (1998), a portrait of Claes and Margareta Nordenhake’s daughter, taken during the family’s Stockholm years. Important paintings by Swedish artists Torsten Andersson and Cecilia Edefalk are shown alongside newly commissioned works by Sarah Crowner, Ryan Mrozowski, and Ann Edholm. The Berlin space, designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS, spans works from 1961 to the present. The historical selection includes Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square (Receptive), François Morellet’s Seule droite traversant 2 carrés dans deux plans différents (1978), Michael Schmidt’s triptych Waffenruhe (1985–87), and Jimmie Durham’s Schlimmbesserung (1992). New commissions include a large-scale wall drawing by Marjetica Potrč imagining coexistence between people and nature in a post-Anthropocene rural Istria; a new light and colour installation by Spencer Finch, expanding on work first shown in his 2005 debut at the gallery; a life-size cut-collage by Frida Orupabo, Big Regrets, designed as a freestanding sculpture for the main gallery space; and new paintings by Sophie Reinhold and Paul Fägerskiöld. The Mexico City space, designed by Frida Escobedo, presents works that speak to the ongoing dialogue between the gallery’s European legacy and contemporary Latin American practice. Historical works by Robert Morris and Rémy Zaugg, which echo the gallery’s founding program, are shown alongside new commissions created specifically for this anniversary by Iñaki Bonillas, José Eduardo Barajas, Elena Damiani, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, and Jerónimo Rüedi. The space, which has served as a vital bridge between the gallery’s European roots and the Americas since opening in 2017, also features work by Mirosław Bałka, Emma Bernhard, Ayan Farah, Eva Löfdahl, Runo Lagomarsino, Silvia Gruner, and Marcelo Pacheco, among others. Ahead of the openings, a catalogue dedicated to the gallery’s history launches at Art Basel. Edited by Gerard Byrne and designed by Peter Maybury, it features commissioned texts by Daniel Birnbaum, Steffanie Hessler, and María Minera, and includes special editions and unique works produced by Iñaki Bonillas, Sarah Crowner, Spencer Finch, Frida Orupabo, and Håkan Rehnberg.

Peripheral emOtions: Alice Shulman on Her Exhibition for the Brixtol Textile Art Scholarship 2026 Text by Natalia Muntean Photo by Jonas Ingerstedt Every two years, Brixtol Textiles invites an artist to transform deadstock fabrics from its production into a new body of work through the Brixtol Textile Art Scholarship. Established in 2022, the biennial initiative seeks to support artistic experimentation while highlighting the creative potential of existing materials. This year’s scholarship recipient is Stockholm-based artist Alice Shulman. Presented at Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, her exhibition Peripheral emOtions features nine new sculptural installations that explore the relationship between glass and textile through waxed fabrics, frayed threads, folded surfaces and hand-blown glass. The works continue Shulman’s ongoing project Emotional Landscape, investigating how material, form and space can give shape to emotions that often remain just beyond our immediate awareness. “Brixtol Textiles was founded from a deep appreciation for textiles and the tactile experience of exceptional materials,” says Emil Holmström, co-founder of Brixtol Textiles. “The Brixtol Textile Art Scholarship celebrates artists who share our passion for textile craftsmanship and creative expression. Through this initiative, we hope to inspire new perspectives on textiles and contribute to a more vibrant and innovative creative landscape in Sweden.” For Holmström, the choice of Shulman as the 2026 recipient was clear. “Alice Shulman stood out this year for her unique approach to materiality and her unexpected use of our deadstock fabrics. Working from the medium of glass sculpture, she proposed a dialogue between two contrasting materials, textile and glass, that felt both innovative and poetic.” We spoke with Alice Shulman about peripheral emotions, the conversation between glass and textile and the role of materiality in expressing what words sometimes cannot. Natalia Muntean: What does the phrase Peripheral emOtions mean to you, and why did you choose it for this body of work?Alice Shulman: Peripheral emotions are feelings that linger at a distance. Whether subconscious or intentionally placed in the background, they continue to shape how we experience the world. I chose the title because the work explores these quieter emotional states that often exist outside our immediate attention. NM: What drew you to explore these quieter, less visible emotional states?AS: In this work I”m interested in the emotions that are present but not immediate. They can be conflicting, difficult to capture or just more quiet, yet they often influence us as much as our more obvious feelings. Photo by Jonas Ingerstedt NM: What can glass and textiles communicate that language sometimes cannot?AS: Materials communicate through presence and sensation rather than explanation. Together they create composition, harmony or dissonance. Sometimes it’s close to sublime, sometimes there is friction. Emotions are the starting point of language. NM: How did these two materials begin to speak to each other during the creative process?AS: It’s like both materials contaminate each other through the process. The fabric was made even more sturdy in order to support the glass – it stiffened in a simple motion just as glass does while fired. The glass – I always take clues from textile processes while working with it, by cutting glass while it’s hot, for instance, but in this work, it was also a matter of ornamentation. NM: How did the collaboration with master glassblowers in the Czech Republic shape the work?AS: The collaboration allowed me to work at a larger scale and push the material further. The final pieces emerged through a balance of artistic intention, craftsmanship, and the material’s own behaviour. NM: How did the rooftop setting influence the exhibition?AS: Sven Harry’s Rooftop is an iconic background. The pebbles, the golden walls and the Stockholm skyline with a striking blue sky make a perfect backdrop. It’s a manifestation of Swedish design tradition. With glass playing such a part in Swedish craft history, I think it’s wonderful to push that tradition into the future. NM: Did working with deadstock fabrics influence the ideas behind the exhibition?AS: Yes, through its sturdy, crispy character, it had a very sculptural structure and a natural will to shape by itself. NM: What do you hope visitors take with them after encountering Peripheral emOtions?AS: I hope the works give the visitors some minutes to reflect on their own emotional landscape. Photo by Ida Blom