CHART, the leading Nordic event for contemporary
art, will take place at Kunsthal Charlottenborg from 26 -29 August 2021. After last
year’s de-centred approach, CHART 2021 returns to its historic home in the heart
of Copenhagen, bringing together the best contemporary art galleries from the Nordics
and creating a single-entry point into the region’s gallery scene. In addition to
a physical event, CHART will launch a series of new editorial and onlineinitiatives,
connecting the arts community beyond both geographical bordersand the annual summer
event.
For its 9th edition, CHART art fair will showcase 27
leading Nordic galleries working with both regional and international artists. CHART
will also introduce Experimental, a new section featuring 11 artist-run and alternative
exhibition spaces as well as newly established galleries from the region.
This year four Icelandic galleries
will be participating: BERG Contemporary, Hverfisgallerí, i8 gallery,
and Þula.
Hulda Stefánsdóttir, Shift. Courtesy of BERG Contemporary.
For CHART 2021 BERG Contemporary presents a new exhibition by Hulda
Stefánsdóttir and introduces multimedia artist Dodda Maggý.
Hulda Stefánsdóttir‘s paintings appear
deceptively simple, allowing the texture of the background to become a prominent
feature, but through this delicate overlaying she explores the subject of time and
the impossibility of presenting any given moment without echoes or traces of its
past.
Dodda Maggý’s audio-visual works explore
the complex artistic language of time based media. Producing audio-visual installations,
films, music, sound art or silent moving images, she attempts to externalize the
internal dimensions of dreams, memories and imagination.
For CHART 2021, i8 Gallery presents twelve new watercolours by Ólafur Elíasson.
Watercolours have been a sustained interest of Elíasson’s
that he has used since 2009 to investigate colour, movement, and time. The works
often conjure subtle illusions of space and light through the repeated application
of thin, transparent washes onto a single sheet of paper in a meticulous, highly
physical production process.
Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Different communities develop. Courtesy of Hverfisgallerí.
At CHART 2021, Hverfisgallerí will present works by four of the
gallery’s artists: Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Loji Höskuldsson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson,
and Kristinn E. Hrafnsson.Through their respective practices and mediums, these
artists all share a conceptual framework concerned with heritage and the history
of Icelandic cultural identity.
Through the use of wool and thread
dyed with colours extracted from local flora, Hildur Bjarnadóttir investigates issues
of belonging, ecology, place and cohabitation with animals and plants on a small
piece of land in the south of Iceland where she lives and works. The plants on the
piece of land function as recording devices which take in information from the ecological
and social systems they belong to through the soil and the air.
Loji Höskuldsson explores new and traditional
ways of embroidery, where he often depicts a still life composed of everyday objects,
plants and fruits, featuring local products which are instantly recognizable and
nostalgic.
Hrafnkell Sigurðsson’s art deals with
the shock of contrasts, between nature and culture. His aesthetic vision deals with
the ultimate questions of survival where devastation is often wrapped in irresistible
beauty.
Kristinn E. Hrafnsson deals with people’s
understanding of their surroundings and how nature influences his outlook and relationships.
The relationship between the artwork and its environment has always been an important
aspect of his work.
Kristín Morthens, Gegnumtrekkur. Courtesy of Þula.
In just over a year since opening,
Þula has already established itself as a well known
name in the Icelandic Art scene. For their first year at CHART, they will be presenting
an exhibition of paintings by Kristín Morthens.
Through abstract figures and landscapes, the paintings create narratives of intimacy,
separation and boundaries interpreted in terms of physical form within a dreamlike
space, in settings that do not seem to belong to this world.
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