ART CITIES:Stockholm-Henrik Samuelsson

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:01 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and : Galerie Laurent GodinThe architecture and formal composition of Henrik Samuelsson’s paintings generate a strong sense of presence, emphasised by an underlying structure of vertical and horizontal lines. Their interaction creates a space that surrounds and captivates the viewer. The paintings deal not only with shifting perspectives, but also with the inner light that emerges in the subtle gradation of color.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Laurent Godin Archive

Henrik  Samuelsson’s series “Frozen  Orbit” , eleven  paintings  by  created  between  2012 and  2017, are on presentation at Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. The  entirety  of  the  series  unfold  a  nonlinear  tale  during  a  short  time  before  dawn, where  each  canvas accurately punctuates the eleven minutes that compose this moment, following the irregular rhythm of a silent metronome. Through a game of correspondences where landscape,splinters of architecture and skies   respond   to   one   another,   the   scenes   reveal   random   parallels   and   disorientating   symmetries:  awakening and sleep, white moon and black moon, absence and presence. Each work, while keeping the strength of its singularity, finds a partial reflection, distorted or reversed in the other paintings of the series. Like a distant echo from “Stega”, a previous series of paintings  by Samuelsson whose format and number are  similar,  the  Frozen  Orbit  paintings  are  also  inspired  by  the  scenery  of  northern  Sweden  where  the  artist  comes from. The sites here are depicted at different stages of desolation: these familiar places are suitable for a vigilant and silent observation. Fed with distant  memories they now seem haunted by wild animals, and could be  a possible scene  where  the  mythical  creatures  of  Borges’  Book  of  Imaginary  Beings  could  evolve without a hitch. The chromatic spectrum is reduced to four shades: a subdued white referring to the physical and prehensile world, another white, luminous, immaterial and  therefore  inaccessible, an intermediate gray left by the ebb of light, and a deep black summoning the darkness.  Space and time portrayed in Samuelsson’s work seem suspended like celestial objects frozen in a race towards the Solaris planet, materializing dreamlike scenes that the eye, situated in its orbit, wishes to project. An appointment by ruins inhabited not by memories, but by dreams; a show offering chimerical vestiges where we are invited to communicate with ourselves.

Info: Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Fredsgatan 12 / Jakobsgatan 27 C (hiss), Stockholm, Duration: 23/8-30/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-16:00, https://konstakademien.se

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:02 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and : Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:02 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:03 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and : Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:03 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:04 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and : Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:04 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:05 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:05 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:06 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:06 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:07 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:07 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:08 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:08 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:09 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:09 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:10 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:10 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin

 

 

Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:11 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin
Henrik Samuelsson, Frozen Orbit 4:11 a.m., 2012-17, Mixed media on canvas, 180 x 216 cm, © Henrik Samuelsson, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin