ART CITIES:Stockholm-Anna Bjerger

Anna Bjerger’s paintings, which hide aluminium panels, get down a type of 21st Century photo-based impressionism that pushes far beyond the usual postmodern art. Like 19th Century pleinairism Bjerger charts the personal echoes cast about by realistic images. Her work burrows into the tricky psychological loam that accumulates beneath photographs. The memories of perfect strangers take root there with implications that resemble kudzu.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galleri Magnus Karlsson

Anna Bjerger’s new paintings for the exhibition “Lit” have light as a point of departure. Her paintings reference found photographs from different sources. They have lost their original purpose and meaning, like frozen moments relegated to darkness. The chosen images are transformed through painting and Bjerger has emphasised the artificial lighting that lends them a staged quality. Anna Bjerger is not afraid to get immersed in the memories of strangers, opening up their narratives for new interpretations, as she brings them out of their original context and into her own artistic universe. Born out of the wish to make the past come alive in a new and unexpected way, Anna Bjerger presents a process of merging two artistic techniques: photography and painting. This is the story of a visual storyteller who seeks the old stories in order to create new ones. In this series Bjerger has approached the process in a different way by selecting a specific color as a starting point for each work. The compliment to this color, which she felt dominated the image, was used to ground each panel acting as a sparring partner during the painting process. This distances the image from its origins. The larger format requires more precision from the artist’s hand bringing a directness. The painterly mark exists as itself but also becomes that which it describes. Bjerger’s work can be said to describe a balance between extremes. It contains the psychological content of the image and the physical aspects of the painting. The narrative evolves, arriving at new meanings through the language of painting. What rests in darkness is brought back into the light and through this the perishable moment is extended.

Info: Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Fredsgatan 12, Stockholm, Duration: 17/11-15/12/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 12:00-17:00, Sat 12:00-16:00, www.gallerimagnuskarlsson.com