Anna-Karin Rasmusson – Den första färgen

We are proud to present Anna-Karin Rasmusson’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, Den första färgen. Rasmusson, who has established herself as one of our most acclaimed video and performance artists, returns with an exhibition in which the colour red plays a crucial role. 

 

In Anna-Karin Rasmusson’s video works, painting is central. Everyday tasks are often performed repetitively within scenographies constructed as collages of painted cardboard boxes and boards. Her work explores human interaction, both physical and emotional. The masked characters in her videos—played by herself—engage in somewhat clumsy attempts to support, comfort, and reach out to one another. More broadly, Rasmusson’s expressive, painterly imagery highlights complex feelings of inadequacy, disorientation, and tenderness.

 

Rasmusson’s new exhibition marks a shift in her practice, placing faith in the image within a chaotic world. Throughout art history, the sacred image has functioned both as a reflection and as a window—an image that requires no explanation and offers no definitive answers. In Rasmusson’s poetic new videos, narration has almost disappeared, giving way to the image itself—to a painting unperturbed by time. In these works, painting becomes a process of moving colour between different “rooms,” from the subconscious mind to the physical act of creating an image.

 

The psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung claimed that colours are the mother tongue of the subconscious—they speak directly to our emotions and to the non-verbal mind. The red liquid in Rasmusson’s work is connected not only to the subconscious but also to the human body; the colour of life—Den första färgen. Circulating within us, blood leaves impressions and stains in a variety of nuances.

 

In the work Mellan plan, colour is poured from bucket to bucket, from one storey to another, within a makeshift house. This symbolic language reflects the theories of dreams, in which the house represents both body and psyche. Duality plays a central role in Rasmusson’s installation, manifested through the shadow behind the figure and subtle shifts that mirror the dual nature of perceived reality and the psyche. In the video diptych Flöde, two flows of paint are slightly offset in relation to each other. The focus on human interaction in her earlier works now gives way to introspection and contemplation.

 

Anna-Karin Rasmusson (b. 1983) is based in Stockholm and holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2016). Selected exhibitions and performances include the group show “Kropp. Ideal, blick, frihet” at Göteborgs konstmuseum, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Galleri Box, Göteborg, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Dramaten, Stockholm, and Malmö Konstmuseum. Furthermore, Rasmusson has been exhibiting at CHART Art Fair, Copenhagen, Stockholm School of Economics, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, and Konstnärshuset, Stockholm.

 

Rasmusson is represented in the collections at Moderna Museet, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Malmö Konstmuseum and Public Art Agency Sweden. Awards and scholarships include Stockholm City Cultural Award (2019), the IASPIS Studio Grant in Stockholm (2018) and the Bernadotte Grant (2016), awarded by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.