KGG har gleden av å presentere kunstneren Ulf Carlsson, som vil vise utstillingen «From Under Stones». Utstillingen åpner og er åpen fredag 13. mai 2022, fra kl 19:00 til ca 22:00. One night only. Velkommen!

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Ulf Carlsson (f. 1966, Borås, Sverige) er samtidskunstner, utdannet på Statens Kunstakademi, Oslo 1994–1998, og fra Högskolan för design och konsthantverk i Göteborg fra 1990–1994. Carlsson bor og arbeider i Oslo.

Høsten 2022 har han separatutstilling på Wold kunstformidling i Trondheim, hvor han vil presentere spesiallagede verk i dialog med Roar Wolds kollasjer. Ulf Carlsson er siden 2004 del av kunstnerfelleskapet Tegneklubben som har gjennomført en rekke utstillinger. Carlsson er også en ettertraktet bokdesigner innen billedkunstfeltet og har de siste 20 årene designet en rekke bøker og utstillingskataloger.

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Words are inadequate tools. We blindly presume we can think out what we wish to say, and language slavishly obliges. Yet words guide, dictate our thoughts, until eventual naming removes much of what we experience. To call Ulf Carlsson’s paintings ‘abstract’ commits this crime. It removes much of what constitutes them. They have nothing to do with strict Greenbergian placing of paint on a surface or relinquishment of the figurative. No, these are figurative-abstractions replete with sumptuous figures and signs, in shadows,in mesmerizing colour mixes, in edges that sometime collide with each other and sometimes blend gracefully with neighbor spaces. Works that can be described in oppositions such as delicate/harsh, unsure/certain, symmetric/unsymmetric, humble/bold, brazen/calm…

Jean Baudrillard claimed that all around us are objects without meaning, appearance that blinds us, seduces us. Ulf Carlsson’s paintings seduce too. When an artwork succeeds, it does not reveal process or project or pathway. No, it simply is. As these works are - complete in this exact same way, even when incomplete. It makes little difference. You would not alter them because as you observe, as you view them, you are not even aware of that possibility. You simply absorb the character they possess, even, dare I say, a fleeting beauty that resides in the gentle brushstrokes, the careful carelessness of the swipes of colour, the coming-together of all this into compositions, appearances that pretend another kind of perfection, a humble imperfection, a flow that frozen momentarily but that may well continue. So, are they serious? No, it’s the wrong word; they are fleeting. They just are, yes, but they will still be different tomorrow, just you wait and see. They have no intention of waiting for you. Because they have not finished the act of making - because they still adjust colors and shapes secretly when you do not see. But, truly, spirits dwell in them, but you need to be in a certain frame of mind to see. I call this sacred, but don’t attach it to Christianity, it is older than that. Now tell me how can such a serious coming-together of colour and shape still make me smile… No, I am not laughing but I am on my knees. I am lifting stones. I want to see what is under them.

Ian Damerell. Vilnius 09.05.2022.