Within the common statement: GHOST, this exhibition is composed of works that discuss human tracks, their feelings, desires and fears, towards a Utopia or a dystopia, in their literature or myths, but where the human himself is absent, omitted or replaced.

As individual artworks, the pieces in this show are tactile and even physical expressions. The ”ghostly” lies always close under. The works are communicating separately, in relation to each other and we hope, with our visitors.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Morgan Schagerberg

For this exhibition, Morgan Schagerberg presents the installation “Tide Is High” 2010, which consists of a light object outside on the gallery roof, three drawings and two smaller installations. The first of these objects, a birdcage with two birds is entitled “det finns en lust att förstöra det som är vackert och att utnyttja någon som är snäll”. The second, entitled “Sweet smelling heart” is a sword and a plate with a heart. The title refers to the unique fragrance from the heart: a sweet yet imperious smell.

His works often focus on the theme of human emotions and basic needs. He examines our individual ways of expressing feelings such as love, naivety, triviality etc. often by using nature or animal visualizations, as well as working with fire, water, light, sculpture, drawing, text and performance.

Morgan Schagerberg is a Swedish artist born in 1964, currently living and working in Malmö. He studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, the Malmö Art Academy, the Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts and the Hovedskou School of Art in Göteborg. He has been working with performance since the mid nineties, in collaboration with, among others, the Norwegian artist Jannicke Låker. In 1997 they did the performance ”Western Life” at the Zoom Festival in Oslo. He has exhibited his works in Scandinavia, Europe and overseas.

Ilona Huss Walin

Ilona Huss Walin presents her video work Rat Export Hamlet (2008), in which she lets live rats live out the roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play takes place in a castle interior built on the scale of the rats. The rats have not been trained, but improvise according to their own inclinations; as actors performing classical theatre, they take on a new dimension. The form of the film, in which sound also plays an important part, is the product of the artist’s efforts to combine two different worlds. As if Shakespeare’s drama were attempting to follow the rats’ improvisations. Film length: 15 mins.

“There are many different components to my art project – both visual, practical and more abstract. It has been a long-standing interest of mine to make a thorough study of preconceptions and the way we comprehend situations. Another thing that interests me is the combination of spoken or written language with particular situations. I add and adapt language to a situation I have created so as to produce a unified whole.”

Ilona Huss Walin lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden. She trained at Bergen National Academy of the arts in Bergen and Valand School of Fine Arts. She has exhibited at, among other places, the Rooseum in Malmö (2005), the Stenasalen at Göteborg Museum of Art (2004), the National Museum in Stockholm (2003), the Artgenda Biennial in Hamburg (2002), and at Konsthallen Bohusläns museum (2000).

The film Rat export Hamlet is produced with support from Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sveriges bildkonstnärsfond.

Thomas Karlsson

In the exhibition Thomas Karlsson will show the works “balloons” 1998-2000, and “torso” 2005. “Balloons” are series of whimsical sculptures that are made by a meticulous casting technique. This produces a solid plaster replica of a rubber balloon. “Torso” is a created using a steel forming technique borrowed from industrial design, which consist of inflating stainless steel using high-pressure water. The “Balloons” gives eternal life to an otherwise momentary and whimsical object; in contrast “Torso” transforms the sturdy material stainless steel into something of great fragility.

In his current work Thomas Karlsson aims to loosen up some of the structures established by one of the most ascetic and strict aesthetic philosophies in the whole of art history, namely Minimalism. The thoughts might run to the work of Donald Judd, but while the work of the American artist can be perceived as ruthlessly autonomous, Thomas Karlsson’s creations billow and float in such a way that ones dreams and imagination become the best way to experience them.

Thomas Karlsson was born in 1964 in Stockholm, Sweden. He has studied at The royal University College of Fine Arts (KKH) and Art and architecture School at Kungliga Konsthogskolan. His work was exhibited widely in Sweden and abroad. His most recent solo exhibition was held at Angelika Knapper Gallery in Stockholm in 2008. Karlsson is also received several public commissions including, Stallarholmens Förskola, Strängnäs Bostad, Sanduddens Skolas nya utemijö Statens Konstråd, Svensk Form och Ekerö kommun, KTH Nada Stockholm, Statens Konstråd. Thomas Karlsson lives and works in Stockholm.

Espen Dietrichson

Espen Dietrichson exhibits two silkscreen prints from “Birds IV” 2009, a series of works consisting of drawings, wall and floor objects and prints, first exhibited at Gallery Trafo in Asker. He creates these photo collages by cutting, pasting and manipulating the images digitally.

In his art, Dietrichson often describes a utopian longing for the promised, the perfect, the free and the liberating, “technology” in constant conflict with the limitations and insuperability that comes with it. In his work Dietrichson is melting together the perfect with the problematic.

Espen Dietrichson is a Norwegian artist born in 1976. He is educated at the Art Academy in Oslo. Dietrichson has exhibited extensively both in Scandinavia and Europe. He currently holds a 6 months guest residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. He lives and works in Arendal.

Yeni Mao

Yeni Mao´s “I AIN’T AFRAID OF NO GHOSTS” is a site-specific installation using 1200 mousetraps, carefully placed in a continual spiral around a glitter core. This concentric structure allows endless augmentation, as if the mice can clone and reproduce hastily. This “ghost-catcher” includes continual surveillance footage, and the visitor can monitor images taken by the night vision camera. The installation was first shown installed in the boiler room of an abandoned convent as part of a three-day event, System:System in Brooklyn, NY in 2009.

“I’m interested in how displacement happens, the manifestation of identity… …“Identity” is formed by so many exterior issues: adaptation, incorporation, extradition—these are the processes I am most interested in, and my work uses this cabinet of revolving ingredients.” Yeni Mao, interviewed by Leah Oates, for NY ARTS, “Intimate Space”.

Yeni Mao was born in Canada to Chinese parents in 1971. Mao spent his childhood in Canada, America, Sweden and Taiwan. Concurrent to this exhibition, he is showing at the Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland. His solo exhibition, Chukar Chandelier was shown at Artware Editions in New York in 2008 and the next solo exhibition is planned at Collette Blanchard Gallery in New York in 2011. Mao has studied at Artworks Foundry in California, and received BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives and works in New York.

Eunjung Hwang

In this exhibition, Eunjung Hwang shows the two suspended balloons “The Box Ghost” and “The Fish”. They are modelled on characters that she has created for her animation “Future Creatures”. The buoyant figures float in air, as if they have strayed from earth’s gravity.

Hwang´s creations all begin their existence as hand-sketches, which she then re-draws on the computer. Using these techniques, she has produced both an archive of digital prints and several animations. This has also developed into a series of large-scale installation works. In her works, she introduces us to a family of uncanny characters. The images often hint at a larger ubiquitous nether-world full of mutated citizens. Some characters are half animal and half human, others hint at an ungodly combination of beings. They are in constant motion, mutating, making love, eating, defecating, killing, or simply stuck moving in endless circles for all eternity.

Eunjung Hwang was born in Seoul, Korea in 1971. She has received an MFA in Computer Arts from School of Visual Arts in New York as well as a BFA in Painting from Ewaha Women´s University and a BA in English Literature from Yonsei University, in Seoul, Korea. She received a residency grant from the Nordic Artists Centre in Dale, Norway in 2006. Several of her video works have been on general broadcast, both in Germany and USA. Her book “Future Creatures: Eunjung Hwang” was published by Sarubia Publication in Korea in 2006. Recently she exhibited at both the NY Studio Gallery and the Allgirls International in Berlin. She currently lives and works in New York.

Eduard Claes Truedsson

In his photography Eduard Claes Truedsson aims to capture the spirit of a building through detailed studies of eroded surfaces. Truedsson´s interest in weathering and texture has led him to create a series of photographic works that evoke perceptual images of the inanimate body. These spectral illusions caused by the absorption and reflection of nature inspires a poetical narrative reaching far beyond the architectural realm.

“My interest and fascination for texture was discovered in a trip visiting my grand mother in Bordeaux. I was outside taking pictures when I suddenly saw a shape of a female face on a wall. This discovery marked a new direction for my photography. Since then I have continued exploring this form of art in Paris, Ljubliana, Rio de Janeiro and Oslo.”

Eduard Truedsson was born in Oslo in 1982 into a French/Scandinavian family. In 2008 Truedsson completed his studies in cinematography and film directing at EICAR in Paris. He has developed an interest in textures and has exploited the series of architectural photographic works in Oslo and abroad. Truedsson is one of founding member of Konglomeratene, an independent the art and film collective.