Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to be part of CHART De-centred taking place in 28 leading art galleries across five Nordic capitals from 28–30 August. For her project presented at CHART, Sigrid Sandström has been preoccupied with building pictorial space on the canvas through the use imprints from rags or plastic film, pouring paint on surfaces where the pigments have become sediments – a process which generates an image. These images sometimes appear as enlargements through a microscope, or macroscopic images seen from a satellite. In the series Matters and Solids, Sandström focuses on the process of viewing – how our experience, circumstances and current mood affect our perception and what we choose to see.
Matter is everything that has mass and volume and is made up of atoms, which are the smallest particles of matter. The arrangement of atoms in an object determines whether it is a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. In a solid, the atoms are packed closely together and cannot move, which results in a definite volume and shape.
The paintings – Solids – are per definition matter and at the same time representing matter. Shapes which oscillate between visualizing an area and an imaginary volume. Geological conditions change over time through sedimentation or erosion, as in the process of painting, where liquid paint dries and becomes solid; previous movements and gestures developed on the canvas. Traces of actions translated into a new shape.
In this series of paintings, Sandström sharpens the gaze, finding focus, one object at a time.
The Swedish painter Sigrid Sandström received her Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in 2001, quickly followed by solo exhibitions in the US and Sweden. Important early shows include The Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, in 2002, and a solo presentation at Frye Museum, Seattle, in 2006. Sandström works primarily with painting, through which she has been exploring site as a concept as well as emotional experience. Over time, the depicted large-scale, barren and uninhabited landscapes have become more abstract. Recent exhibitions include Bonniers Konsthall, Reykjavik Art Museum, Inman Gallery, Houston, and a solo show at Västerås Art Museum, Sweden. Sandström’s work is included in the collections of Moderna Museet, Public Art Agency Sweden, Malmö Art Museum, Borås Art Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to name a few.
