Martha Ossowska Persson, Into the Hideous Hidden, 2018, installation view. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Martha Ossowska Persson, Into the Hideous Hidden, 2018, installation view. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Martha Ossowska Persson, Into the Hideous Hidden, 2018, installation view. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Martha Ossowska Persson, Into the Hideous Hidden, painting
11 October–17 November 2018
Watercolours who through their very medium already are the liquid and smeary inside of our bodies, intestinal and somehow shocking in their vulnerability. A reminder of the infinite space we inhabit but fear to acknowledge.
– Martin Gustavsson
Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to present Martha Ossowska Persson’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition Into the Hideous Hiddenconsists of new large-scale watercolour paintings, where Ossowska Persson has continued to work on her multi-layered exploration of the human body and embedded human behaviours.
In the series of works presented in the duo exhibition Splendor in the Touch in 2015 at the gallery, the artist focused on capturing bodies and limbs in moments of physical contact or tactile games that can be perceived as both an encounter and a threat. With the watercolour paintings in Into the Hideous Hidden she goes deeper, focusing on the spaces and tensions between the encounters of flesh. The close-ups of fingers and hands intertwined in new arrangements and the new tonality of dark blue, purple and pink colours renders the paintings more alien and abstract, but yet vividly present. By exploring these anatomical outlines with precision, Martha Ossowska Persson manifests a vibrating psychological landscape, both deeply alluring and uncanny.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with a text by artist Martin Gustavsson, design by Jonatan Persson and photos by Johan Olsson.
The exhibition runs to 17 November.
Martha Ossowska Persson (b. 1983) holds an MFA from Valand Academy, Gothenburg University (2014) and a BFA from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. She has also studied architecture at Chalmers University of Technology. Ossowska Persson was awarded the Fredrik Roos Art Grant in 2015 for “her vibrant portrayal of tactile physicalities in an increasingly technological and dehumanised era”. In 2015 her works were shown at Moderna Museet Malmö in connection with the Fredrik Roos Art Grant, and at Cecilia Hillström Gallery in the duo exhibition Splendor in the Touch. She has also exhibited at Strandverket Konsthall, Sven-Harrys konstmuseum and Göteborgs Konsthall. Ossowska Persson is represented in private and corporate collections in Sweden as well as in the collections of Public Art Agency Sweden and Skellefteå Municipality.
Download the artist’s CV as pdf here.
Installation view, Splendor in the touch
Installation view, Splendor in the touch
Installation view, Splendor in the touch
Installation view, Splendor in the touch
Gabriella Loeb and Martha Ossowska Persson,
Splendor in the touch, sculpture, painting.
20 August–26 September 2015
Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to open the autumn season with two artists in a duo presentation; Gabriella Loeb and Martha Ossowska Persson. As the title of the exhibition implies, they share a sensibility in terms of closeness to the media of their choice – sculpture made of hardened fabric and large-scale watercolour painting. For both artists, questions arise from the act of doing. Loeb and Ossowska Persson let the painstaking process – involving a considerable amount of technical skill – guide their way to the final result.
Martha Ossowska Persson was recently awarded the Fredrik Roos Art Grant 2015 for “her vibrant portrayal of tactile physicalities in an increasingly technological and dehumanised era.”
Ossowska Persson works with a multilayered exploration of the human body and embedded human behaviors. Her large-scale watercolour paintings capture bodies and limbs in moments of physical contact or tactile games that can be perceived as both an encounter and a threat. The close-up paintings of intertwined hands almost become abstract works, conveying the complex feelings residing in our bodies. The size of the paintings is important, challenging the artist conceptually as well as physically. For Martha Ossowska Persson, each brush stroke is risk-taking. In the constant struggle with the working material, the remnants of colour on the surface are the result of a process of coercion, skill and chance.