• Cornelia Baltes

    Written by Art & Culture

    Cornelia Baltes is a German artist known for her paintings and installations that stand on the edge of abstraction and figuration. Corporeal elements such as hands and feet, part of a face, often captured in motion, are teased out of bold colour fields and gestural forms that combine to hint at a narrative in pictorial space

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I’m currently preparing my exhibition ‘Hub Bub’, which will be my first presentation with Andrehn-Schiptjenko. It's exciting for me as I’m taking over the whole space with murals and paintings. I think it's going to be quite intense and maximalist.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    The short version of the story is that I felt very strongly that this is something that I wanted to do and I just kept stubbornly working on it. I found my voice as an artist while studying in London around 2010 and my practice has just continued to evolve since then. I just haven’t stopped. Keeping doing is the root of my practice and how I need it to be.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    Everything I do is grounded in a drawing practice. I don’t draw from life but rather from memories, half-memories, sense-memories. I tease the work out into the open somehow and then it finally resolves as I negotiate with the materiality of painting to make it take form.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    I was very happy to catch the Alex Da Corte show at the Louisiana Museum last autumn. I really responded to his practice- how he was working with strong colour and even smell, to handle the space of the museum in its totality in a multisensory and emotional way. Being such a perfectionist for producing his often very short videos impresses me. He’s also very funny with it, which I like.


    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    This trip is going to be my first experience so I’m looking forward to diving in.

    Do you have a favourite Swedish Artist?
    I recently became aware of the work of Moki Cherry through a presentation at Galerie Nicolai Wallner in CPH. Her practice with her partner Don, was very holistic and they saw art as part of life which I love. Visually Moki’s work resonates strongly with me too and feels totally contemporary and exciting.

    Do you have a favourite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
    I’m a total Stockholm virgin, but hopefully after my show I will already have some favourites. Looking forward to meet you, Stockholm!

  • Hampus Balanzo Wernemyr

    Written by Art & Culture

    Hampus has a very unique perspective on the world. He sees things in his own way, and it shows in how he portrays both people and objects. Someone once said that it was like getting a glimpse into another world, but we rather think it's precisely his perspective on the world.

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I’m about to start working on a series of paintings for a group show in Seoul, South Korea, in September. I’m picking up the brushes where I had to lay them down due to the deadline for my current solo show Turpentine Conclusions at ISSUES.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    My mother is an artist and my father an architect, creative thinking and aesthetic expression was held very high during my upbringing. As long as you said it was art almost everything was allowed. Art was equal to freedom. But I didn’t paint until my mid twenties, instead I played the violin and guitar. When I started painting I immediately knew I had found the thing I could do the rest of my life. My way of painting has changed a lot over the years but it has always been strictly painting for me since I began.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    That’s a mystery to me. Painting is kind of a struggle up until I start painting then I just let go. I get an impulse or idea, something that I’m curious about. I then start building on that idea using logic and some kind of balance. Paintings are like contraposto towers to me. It sounds out there, I know, but visualizing it like that makes it much easier for me to know where I am in the process and to know what needs to be done.
    Over the years I’ve come to realize that all I do is constantly judge every idea or move I make in the studio. It’s basic commands like yes/no, continue/stop, ringt/wrong. The hard part is knowing what command to choose.
    Since my work is completely dependent of the zeitgeist I pick up, I will never run out of ideas or get stuck, because my my view is constantly changing.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork /series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    I guess my graduation show Tip-Tap has been the most important show for me. Working towards that show I took the stance I have kept since then. I started doing things my way all the way. Fully accepting my artistic practice and being ready to go down with it if it leads to that.

    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    I don’t think of that. Wow, that’s probably the worst answer in an interview ever.

    Do you have a favorite Swedish Artist?
    Yes many. One artist that has been with me since forever is Evert Lundqvist. We share the love of focusing on a single object in each painting.
    Currently reading Lars Noréns dairies and his way of living through his work resonates deep within me. I too don’t understand how to exist without working.

    Favourite bar/restaurant
    I don’t go out like that very often. I keep in touch with my friends on the phone from the studio. And I meet colleagues and friends at openings. I prefer to dance on my nights out.

  • Éva Mag

    Written by Art & Culture

    Éva Mag is a Transylvanian-born artist who lives in Stockholm. She studied at the Royal Institute of Art and has created art using several different metods such as sculpturing, photography and performance art. The body is a recurring theme in her work, and she explores it as a teller of stories and experiances.

    What are you working on right now? /Tell us about your exhibition during Stockholm Art Week?
    I am preparing a sculpture for the groupshow with Black Iris at Gasverket and also work on a show for Galleri Riis in Oslo in May.  The peace I will show with Black Iris is called The Protagonist.

    What inspired you to become an artist, and how has your artistic journey evolved over time?
    My first art education was photography where I learnt about art and art schools. It has been a journey navigating through the different ways of making art and how to understand the world through creating.

    What is your creative process like, and how do you approach developing new ideas and concepts for your work?
    This would require several pages to write or talk about, but it is depending a lot on where I am in different techniques and who I am collaborating with. But the core is that it still makes me happy to endure the hard process while producing and see it all come in place at the show.

    Can you tell me about a specific artwork or series of works that are particularly meaningful to you and why?
    When I started to work with large amount of clay that was an important step for me. I realized the importance of the resistance in the material. It had its own narrative and keeps telling me stories.

    What do you think of Stockholm as an art city?
    A lot happens, you just need to make time to see things.

    Do you have a favorite bar or restaurant in Stockholm?
    There are really great schnitzels and a good bar at Söders hjärta.

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