Elin Odentia – Interlude (blue)

We are pleased to present Elin Odentia’s second solo exhibition at the gallery titled Interlude (blue). Her largest show to date includes a series of new paintings all emanating from the same nuance of blue, the same colour enclosing the exhibition in our lower gallery room. The colour blue holds many qualities: resonating with the sky and the ocean – it can bring calm, suggest melancholy and depth or simply safety and protection. In iconography, it is the holy colour of the Virgin Mary signifying the divine or something precious, making the exhibition a sort of sanctuary or refuge from the outer world.

In Interlude (blue), Elin Odentia focuses on the interplay between the paintings. Delicate pastel hues of blue and pink in combination with raw canvas are contrasted with Odentia’s typical use of red and black. In On Either Side of Time, gold pigments outline the recurring shape of the square in the paintings. In earlier works, the contrast between abstraction and figuration is a crucial aspect of Odentia’s practice. In her new project, a shift is visible towards abstraction as the paintings are reduced and condensed in form and colour, almost like monochromes. The objects encountered in the paintings are no longer resting solidly on the ground. They are suspended in space, freed from gravity, and posing for the viewer from a given point of view. Almost always positioned from the side, the oval see-through structure is protecting its core. 

The frontal square in some of the paintings faces the viewer, contradicting the illusion of space in the painting, offering a solitary space for focus and calm. The abstract motifs are countered with figurative titles like Madonna and Amnion / Halo hinting at the safe haven that the exhibition may provide, as well as its precious content.

Elin Odentia (b. 1990 in Ödsmål) holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm and a BFA from University College of Arts, Craft & Design, Stockholm. Odentia has exhibited at MARKET Art Fair, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, Uppsala Art Museum, Körbärsgården, Gotland, Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg, Galleri Flach, Stockholm and Galleri 54, Gothenburg. She was awarded the scholarship of Anna-Lisa Thomson Till Minne foundation in 2019 and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s one-year working grant in 2020 and 2022. She is represented in the collections of Uppsala Art Museum, Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm konst, Region Uppsala, Region Kalmar län, Region Dalarna, Uppsala Municipality, Swedish Association for Art (SAK) and Vinge Art Collection.