Linnea Rygaard – Up Where We Belong

Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to open the autumn season with Linnea Rygaard's second solo show at the gallery. In the exhibition Up Where We Belong, a labyrinth of new paintings is presented in the space enhancing the perspectives and architectural elements found in the works.

The paintings in the exhibition are all named after great love songs, which could be made accountable to the pink shimmer of motherhood, or simply the high frequency omnipresent in Rygaard's work. Like a stream of consciousness shifting between macro and micro perspectives, the images resemble scenes from video games or details of ornaments, where a multitude of connotations are mixed together in a swirl of somber hues and vast depths.

In addition to indicating a high state of mind, the titles reveal a certain kind of obsession in the process of painting which is also present in the act of watching. In Never Gonna Give You Up the lines entangle and seem to delve deeper and outwards out of sight; in Nothing Compares to You the structure unfolds like in motion but yet stubbornly lingers on the canvas.

A rhythm is created in the contrast between the works and their motives, a shifting in pace between tranquility and velocity. Working with an ambivalent scale and central perspective, Rygaard puts painterly aspects in stark contrast to the illusion of depth and the images she creates. Depth comes forth both in the material itself - in the way the layers of paint are applied - and through the illusions of motives. This conjures focus and speed, both in the artist's process and in the viewer's perception, making the experience of watching Rygaard's work a balancing act between holding on and letting go.