Johan Thurfjell visar sin hyllade utställning Den första skulpturen. Lördag 3 februari, 14.00 Utställningen pågår t o m 17 februari Recensioner: https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/konst-form/elementara-former-med-demoniska-skuggor/ https://www.svd.se/thurfjells-morka-skuggspel-gor-vetenskapen-trakig http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=478&artikel=6860792 http://konsten.net/johan-thurfjell-pa-galerie-nordenhake-2/ http://www.omkonst.com/18-thurfjell-johan.shtml

Recent reviews of Johan Thurfjell's exhibition at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm https://www.svd.se/thurfjells-morka-skuggspel-gor-vetenskapen-trakig http://konsten.net/johan-thurfjell-pa-galerie-nordenhake-2/ http://www.omkonst.com/18-thurfjell-johan.shtml https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/konst-form/elementara-former-med-demoniska-skuggor/ http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=478&artikel=6860792

Asier Mendizabal Kopf, Faust, Baum Artist talk: Asier Mendizabal in conversation with Alex Sainsbury, Raven Row, London: January 19, 6 pm Galerie Nordenhake presents the first solo exhibition of Asier Mendizabal in Berlin, in collaboration with Anthony Reynolds, London. The artist’s practice has consistently revolved around the relationship between form and space, thoroughly exploring the legacies of radical sculptural languages and their multilayered political implications. For the exhibition, Mendizabal brings together a group of works with different references and materials such as wood and concrete, as well as photographic works and woodblock prints. The work "Untitled (Syntagmatic Paradigmatic)" (2012) is a massive chain carved out of the trunk of a single chestnut tree. Anthony Reynolds describes it, as well as, a literal metaphor, in which one element is inextricably linked to the one that precedes and the one that follows, and together they constitute a well-formed structure, indeed a syntagmatic structure. But the analogy doesn’t end there for Mendizabal is nothing if not aware of the ancestry of the political in art; he understands the need to acknowledge and nourish the smallest roots, because they reach out furthest from the tree. This sculpture is a perfect rendition of that historical thread from the “seed” to the artifact, from the word to the question, from the idea to the act. Reynolds further notes that “Untitled” is the most paradigmatic “title” in art, and only a work of art could be defined thus. And it is in the manifest presence of this sculpture fashioned from a tree that sense can be made of this absence. "Kopf, Faust, Baum" (Head, Fist, Tree, 2014) is a work consisting of two hollow papier-maché objects that evoke two oversized heads, or an even more oversized pair of fists placed directly on the floor supporting each other. One of the elements is painted bright yellow, the other white. Our perceptual apparatus could read them as a representation of fallen monument. Nevertheless, at the same time, its fragile texture and abstract form directs our perception to essential questions of modernist sculpture such as representing emptiness or the “de-occupation of space”. The subtexts of the work, though, offer further interpretations: such as the referenced in the work’s title, which might suggest a relation between the erection and destruction of monuments or cultural identities, on the other hand, and the growth and chopping down of trees, on the other. The works Untitled (Warp and the Weft) (2014) are concrete casts of baskets with holes at the center, opening that open a void in the objects. Through its underlying structure, one of a traditional basket, fossilized in concrete, is given both metaphorical and physical weight in its transition from functional tool to sculptural form. Asier Mendizabal was born in 1973 in Ordizia, Basque Country, Spain. The artist lives in Bilbao and Stockholm, where he recently has been appointed Professor of Fine Art, Installation and Sculpture at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. In 2017 he also won the Art and Patronage Prize awarded by Foundation La Caixa, Spain. His work is currently on view at the exhibition ”Art and Space” at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, and he will have a solo exhibition at the Foundation-Museum Jorge Oteiza, in Alzuza, Spain, this Spring. Mendizabal has had solo exhibitions at Raven Row, London and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (both 2011); Culturgest, Lisbon (2010); and Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2008). He participated in the 34th Sao Paolo Biennial (2014) and the 53rd Venice Biennale (2011). His work was featured in group exhibitions exhibition at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, and Pavillion of the Sao Paolo Biennial (both 2016); Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2015), Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2012), or Museu Serralves, Porto (2010). The artist presented comprehensive site-specific projects at Alabado Contemporáneo, Casa del Alabado, Quito, Ecuador; and the chapel of Otzuarte, Spain (both 2016) and at San Telmo Muesoa, San Sebastian, Spain (2014). An important part of his research-based practice is writing. Anthony Reynolds Gallery operates without a fixed space but organizes exhibitions in collaboration with colleagues in galleries internationally. “This project with Galerie Nordenhake is the perfect illustration of the mutual benefits of our modus operandi, namely, the opportunity to work with a valued colleague and friend, the placing of an artist in the best context for his work. This is Collaboration # 8.” (A.R.) Exhibition: January 20 – March 3, 2018 Artist talk: Asier Mendizabal in conversation with Alex Sainsbury, Raven Row, London: January 19, 6 pm IGNASI ABALLÍ MERIÇ ALGÜN RINGBORG CHRISTIAN ANDERSSON OLLE BAERTLING MIROSŁAW BAŁKA ANNA BARHAM IÑAKI BONILLAS ANN BÖTTCHER MICHAŁ BUDNY GERARD BYRNE JOHN COPLANS SARAH CROWNER JONAS DAHLBERG ELENA DAMIANI ANN EDHOLM SPENCER FINCH HREINN FRIÐFINNSSON PAUL FÄGERSKIÖLD ZVI HECKER SOFIA HULTÉN FRANKA HÖRNSCHEMEYER GUNILLA KLINGBERG KARL LARSSON EVA LÖFDAHL MEUSER HELEN MIRRA ESKO MÄNNIKKÖ SIROUS NAMAZI WALTER NIEDERMAYR SCOTT OLSON MIKAEL OLSSON MARJETICA POTRČ HÅKAN REHNBERG ULRICH RÜCKRIEM MICHAEL SCHMIDT FLORIAN SLOTAWA LEON TARASEWICZ JOHAN THURFJELL ALAN UGLOW NOT VITAL MAGNUS WALLIN STANLEY WHITNEY RÉMY ZAUGG JOHN ZURIER

Review of Johan Thurfjell's current exhibition The First Sculpture on P1 Kultur: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/1007709?programid=5053

Johan Thurfjell is known for his lyrical and suggestive works that, in their reduced form, convey a strong narrative content, evoking sagas and fables, fears and fantasies. Regardless of his choice of material or technique Thurfjell’s sculptures, paintings, video works and installations show a dexterity and pleasure in his craftsmanship. For his new exhibition at Galerie Nordenhake Thurfjell forgoes his previous use of mise-en-scène as a story-telling device. Instead he explores the role of sculpture as a cultural indicator in its earliest and most primitive iterations and examines the communicative potential of form-making as an essentially human endeavour. Working primarily in papier-mâché and clay, in a palette of plain white and painted greyscale, Thurfjell carefully renders the most basic elements of an elemental landscape - sticks and stones - to explore the point at which raw material becomes sculpture; when nature becomes culture. The process of transition from nature to culture, indicated in the title of Levi-Strauss’s pioneering anthropological classic “The Raw and the Cooked,” is illustrated in the working of a branch to fuel, fuel to fire and fire to hearth, creating a symbol for not only warmth and food preparation but also community and by extension, society. Rendered here in marble-white, the campfire is accompanied by other signs of life: through a small intervention two sticks from the forest floor are arranged into an arrow to indicate direction; in Giant a group of rocks placed in a precarious pile become a cairn, while a standing bundle of sticks and branches bound together suggest a figure in Stick Man. With the simplest of means these first sculptures assume the communicative signs of human existence in an otherwise primordial landscape.

Miroslaw Bałka's exhibition at Hangar Bicocca Milano amongst "The Best of 2017" list: "The massive HangarBicocca presented a devastating exhibition of the Polish polymath Mirosław Bałka, whose whirring fans, hallways slicked with soap, and pumps of coal-black water circled around, but never disclosed, the horrors of the Holocaust." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/arts/design/the-best-art-of-2017.html

Reviews of Meriç Algün's current exhibition "Finding the Edge" at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm Svenska Dagbladet https://www.svd.se/hela-varlden-ryms-i-hyllorna-pa-galerie-nordenhake Konsten.net http://konsten.net/meric-algun-pa-galerie-nordenhake/ Dagens Nyheter https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/konst-form/konstrecension-meric-algun-minnesbilder-som-slits-itu/

Hreinn Friðfinnsson presents, in his seventh exhibition at the gallery, works from the last three decades of his artistic practice as well as a new, extensive installation. The artist frequently works with simple everyday materials, altering them with precise minimal interventions, such as in his iconic work Sanctuary (1992–2014). The work consists of a cardboard box installed as an object on the wall at eye-level. Its top flaps are slightly opened to reveal an intense green colour shimmering on the inside of the cross-shaped object, suggesting an unfathomable, seemingly sacred space. In this slightly altered readymade, Friðfinnsson unfolds the conceptual and poetic potential of seemingly banal things that already exist. His lyrical conceptualism is close to the work of Marcel Duchamp as well as Arte Povera and Land Art. Characteristic of his work— which focuses on the most ephemeral, fleeting qualities of the world around him—is, however, a subtle sense of humour and the acknowledgement of a supernatural dimension. Narrative as well as a specific perception of landscape are deeply ingrained across his body of work. Landscape is conceived of as the result of a symbiosis of nature and psyche, rooted in the memories and sagas of his native Iceland. Here, a rock can be an enchanted place inhabited by mysterious creatures that are not visible to everyone. In his new installation Hulduklettur (“black” or “concealing rock”—from the Icelandic huldur, meaning “dark” or “concealed,” and klettur, meaning “rock”) the artist presents a rugged landscape of cardboard boxes, amongst which can be found a variety of artefacts like ammonites, crystals, an anatomical model of an ear, images of a Nautilus and galaxies. Together, they form a complex picture of natural phenomena, the unifying element being the Fibonacci sequence. The spiral, which is considered to be the epitome of Fibonacci’s mathematical system, is understood as a kind of growth pattern and fundamental principle of nature. This symbiotic relationship between mathematics, philosophy, and aesthetics is executed as well in the work Principle and Temptation (1991), whose individual squares are proportioned according to the golden section, a calculation likewise derived from the Fibonacci sequence. Illustration (2014) is comprised of two photographs and a Mirage instrument to illustrate a three-dimensional reflection and literally illustrates Friðfinnson's legendary House project: In 1974 he built an house in a remote area of Iceland, turning it inside-out. This first house was followed by several manifestations, each of which gradually dematerialized with every new version. The fourth manifestation, which has been exhibited at Skulptur Projekte Münster this year, is an outline of the original house”s frame, made from highly reflective steel—a kind of echo of the first house. The spherical Mirage object exhibited in the gallery creates a hologram of the house”s outline that seems to float above a volcanic landscape. The hologram is the dematerialized, mirrored version— thereby becoming the memory of all previous manifestations of the house, a container of all possibilities, and reflecting the genesis of the first house. Study In Black III (2010) echoes this idea of an imagined world: in this case, using the mirror as a paradigm of art. The installation consists of a rectangular black mirror, a historic Claude Mirror, which served as an optical aid to artists in the 18th century; and a photograph of such a mirror. The work takes up the traditional mode of looking at landscape and framing the world, while at the same time throwing it back at the viewer and the exhibition space, which appears as a landscape itself, reflected in the black mirror—and it is also the ultimate monochrome image. Study In Black III is thus also a reflection on how we actually construct an idea of "landscape," and the desires lying at the core. The video Untitled (Books) (2005–09) shows books scattered across the Icelandic tundra, the wind turning their pages, as if they have always been part of the landscape. Born in 1943 in Baer Dölum, Iceland, Hreinn Friðfinnsson has been living in Amsterdam since 1971. He was co-founder of the Icelandic avant-garde artists’ collective SÚM and has exhibited internationally since the 1970s. He recently had solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Amsterdam (2015); The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík (2014); Bergen Museum and Malmö Konsthall (both 2008); Reykjavik Art Museum and Serpentine Gallery, London (both 2007); Domaine de Kerguehennec, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bignan, and Kyoto Art Center (both 2002). He participated in Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017. In 2012 he participated in the 30th Sao Paulo Biennial and in 1993 represented Iceland at the 45th Venice Biennale. Recent significant participations include group exhibitions at Garage Center for Contemporary Culture / GCCC, Moscow, and Mudam Luxemburg (both 2014) MOCA Los Angeles and Haus der Kunst, Munich (both 2012), Reykjavik Arts Festival (2005); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2004). In 2000 the artist was the recipient of the prestigious Ars Fennica Prize. Hreinn Friðfinnsson has been exhibiting with Galerie Nordenhake since 1989. Exhibition: November 25, 2017 – January 13, 2018 Opening: November 24, 6-8 pm Please contact the gallery for further information and press images. Upcoming Exhibition: Asier Mendizábal curated by Anthony Reynolds, January 20 - February 24, 2018 __________________________________________________________ In seiner siebten Einzelausstellung in der Galerie Nordenhake zeigt Hreinn Fridfinnssonn Arbeiten aus drei Dekaden seines künstlerischen Schaffens sowie eine neue, raumgreifende Installation. Fridfinnsson verwendet in seinen Arbeiten häufig einfachste Alltagsmaterialien, an denen er minimale Interventionen vornimmt. So wie in seiner ikonischen Arbeit Sanctuary (1992-2014). Sie zeigt einen Pappkarton, der als Wandobjekt auf Augenhöhe installiert ist. Die oberen Deckel sind halb geöffnet und wir sehen eine grün fluoreszierende Farbe im Inneren des kreuzförmigen Objekts schimmern. Es öffnet sich ein Fenster in einen unergründlichen, sakral anmutenden Raum. Dieses ‚leicht modifizierte’ Readymade entfaltet das konzeptuelle und poetische Potential eines ansonsten scheinbar banalen Objekts. Fridfinnssons lyrischer Konzeptualismus steht in der Tradition der Arbeiten Marcel Duchamps, Arte Povera und Land Art. Dabei werden sie meist durch einen feinen Sinn für Humor und das Übersinnliche charakterisiert und befassen sich mit den ephemeren, vergänglichen Dingen, der uns umgebenden Welt. Wichtige Aspekte in Fridfinnssons Arbeiten sind ihre erzählerische Dimension und eine spezifische Wahrnehmung von Landschaft, als einer Verbindung zwischen Natur und Psyche, die in den Erinnerungen und den Sagen seines Herkunftslands Island wurzelt. In der neuen Installation Hulduklettur (‚schwarzer’ oder ‚verbergender Fels’; von huldur: dunkel, verborgen und klettur: Fels) zeigt uns der Künstler eine zerklüftete Landschaft aus Pappkartons, zwischen denen sich verschiedenste Artefakte wie Ammoniten, Kristalle, ein anatomisches Model eines menschlichen Ohrs sowie Abbildungen von Nautilus und Galaxien finden, die sich zu einem komplexen Bild natürlicher Phänomene zusammenfügen. Ihr verbindendes Element ist die Fibonacci-Sequenz. Die Spirale, die als Inbegriff ihrer mathematischen Systematik gilt, wird als eine Art Wachstumsmuster und fundamentales Prinzip der Natur verstanden. Diese Symbiose zwischen Mathematik, Philosophie und Ästhetik vollzieht auch die fotografische Arbeit Principle and Temptation (1991), deren einzelne Quadrate nach dem Goldenen Schnitt proportioniert sind, der wiederum mit der Fibonacci-Sequenz korrespondiert. Illustration (2014) besteht aus zwei Fotografien und einem Mirage-Instrument zur Veranschaulichung von dreidimensionalen Spiegelungen und illustriert wortwörtlich das legendäre House Projekt des Künstlers. Im Jahr 1974 baute er ein Haus in einer unbewohnten Gegend Islands, bei dem er das Innere nach Außen kehrte. Darauf folgten mehrere Manifestationen des Hauses, die sich mit jeder neuen Ausführung sukzessive entmaterialisierten. Die Vierte war in diesem Jahr bei Skulptur Projekte Münster zu sehen und ist ein spiegelnder Stahlumriss des Hausrahmens, eine Art Echo des ersten Hauses. Das ausgestellte, kugelförmige Mirage-Objekt erzeugt ein Hologram des Hausumrisses, das über einer Vulkanlandschaft zu schweben scheint. Dieses Hologram ist als virtuelle, gespiegelte Version nunmehr Erinnerungsspeicher aller vorangegangenen Verkörperungen des Hauses, ein Kontainer, der alle Möglichkeiten enthält und dabei zurückblickt auf die Entstehungsgeschichte des ersten Hauses. In Study In Black III (2010) hallt der Gedanke einer imaginierten Welt nach – im Sinne der Spiegelung als Paradigma der Kunst. Die Arbeit besteht aus einem rechteckigen, schwarzen Spiegel, einem historischen Claude Spiegel, der Künstlern im 18. Jahrhundert als optisches Hilfsmittel diente, und einer Fotografie eines solchen Spiegels. Die Arbeit greift diese Form der Landschaftsbetrachtung und Rahmung von Welt auf und wirft sie gleichzeitig wieder zurück auf den Betrachter und den Ausstellungsraum, der sich als Landschaft im schwarzen Spiegel zeigt. Dieser ist in seiner Makellosigkeit Sinnbild für das ultimative monochrome Bild. Study In Black III ist damit auch eine Reflexion auf die Frage wie wir „Landschaft“ konstruieren und was sich darin für ein Begehren zeigt. So zeigt das Video Untitled (Books) (2005-2009) isländische Tundra und darin verstreut Bücher, die vom Wind durchblättert werden, als wären sie schon immer ein Teil dieser Landschaft. Hreinn Friðfinnsson wurde 1943 in Baer Dölum, Island geboren und lebt seit 1971 in Amsterdam. Im Jahr 1965 war er Mitbegründer des isländischen Avantgarde-Künstlerkollektivs SÚM. Zu seinen jüngeren Einzelausstellungen zählen u.a.: Kunstverein Amsterdam (2015); The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík (2014); Bergen Museum and Malmö Konsthall (beide 2008); Reykjavik Art Museum und Serpentine Gallery, London (beide 2007); Domaine de Kerguehennec, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bignan und Kyoto Art Center (beide 2002). Er nahm Teil an Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017), der 30. Sao Paulo Biennale (2012) und vertrat Island bei der 45. Venedig Biennale (beide 1993). Jüngere bedeutende Gruppenausstellungen hatte er im: Garage Center for Contemporary Culture / GCCC, Moscow and Mudam Luxemburg (beide 2014), MOCA Los Angeles und Haus der Kunst, München (beide 2012); Reykjavik Arts Festival (2005); Jeau de Paume, Paris (2004). Im Jahr 2000 erhielt der Künstler den renommierten Ars Fennica-Preis. Hreinn Friðfinnsson stellt seit 1989 in der Galerie Nordenhake aus. Ausstellung: 25. November, 2017 - 13. Dezember, 2018 Eröffnung: 24. November, 18-20 Uhr Für weitere Informationen und Pressebilder kontaktieren Sie bitte die Galerie. Nächste Ausstellung: Asier Mendizábal kuratiert von Anthony Reynolds, 20. Januar - 24. Februar 2018

https://www.facebook.com/events/337408533404490/

According to plate tectonics, the earth’s outer shell is divided into a number of large, rigid, moving plates that interact at their boundaries, where they converge, diverge, or slide past one another. Such interactions are believed to be responsible for most of the seismic and volcanic activity of the earth. Plates cause mountains to rise where they push together, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where they rift apart. The continents, sitting passively on the backs of the plates, drift with them, at the rate of a few centimeters a year. At the end of the Permian, some 300 million years ago, all the present continents are said to have been gathered together in a single supercontinent, Pangaea. In her second solo exhibition titled "Finding the Edge" at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, Meriç Algün has made a series of new works that draws parallels between the separation of the continents and the origins of human desire. Algün’s investigation stems from the Canadian poet Anne Carson’s insightful book "Eros: The Bittersweet" (1983) where she speaks of love and desire as an issue of boundaries and separation. The first room of the exhibition space is occupied by a freestanding shelving structure that is cut into seven units on site. The measurements of each unit correspond proportionally to the surface area of each continent, whilst the gaps between the rows of shelves correlate to the surface area of the oceans. In their self-contained logic, the shelves hold a variety of objects ranging from plants and animal fossils, to globes, hand made books, videos and sculptures that intertwine notions of geological and human boundaries and connections. In the second room stands a conversation chair made in cherry wood and rattan. Whilst the chair is essentially designed to allow two people to face each other, it also separates them with the woven material through which they can only partially see each other. The work not only hints at the relationship between two people but also at the relationship between fragmented parts of a whole. Algün juxtaposes the chair with a wall text that is a short passage from a novel she is currently working on. The overall exhibition brings together her interest in understanding what drives people apart and what happens in the space that lies in between. The artist would like to thank Moa Brännström Ott, Jonas Dahlberg, Simon Goldin, David Larsson and Leonard Gustavsson Bokbinderi. Meriç Algün was born in 1983 in Istanbul and currently lives and works in Stockholm. Algün has had significant solo exhibitions at institutions including ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus (2016), Kunstverein Freiburg; Moderna Museet, Stockholm (both 2015), MOSTYN, Llandudno (2014); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Art in General, New York (both 2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012). She participated in the 56th Venice Biennial and in the 14th Istanbul Biennial; 5th Thessaloniki Biennial, (all 2015), the 19th Sydney Biennale and the 12th Bienal de Cuenca (both 2014) and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). Algün has participated in group shows at venues including Fondazione Prada, Athens; Istanbul Modern Museum, Istanbul (both 2017), Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus; Serpentine Sackler Gallery (both 2016) Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2014); Kunstverein Hannover; Marabouparken, Stockholm; MoCA, Detroit and MAK, Vienna (all 2013), as well as at CCA Wattis, San Francisco and Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (both 2012). Algün’s artwork, A Work of Fiction (Manuscript), was published Art Review (Vol 66, No 6). Vernissage: November 16, 2017, 17.00 – 20.00 �Exhibition period: November 17 – December 21, 2017 �Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 11.00 – 18.00, Saturday 12.00 – 16.00 Installation views are available after the opening at www.nordenhake.com� Please contact the gallery for further information and press images Upcoming exhibition: Johan Thurfjell, January 11 – February 17, 2018

Review of Håkan Rehnberg's current exhibition at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm in today's Dagens Nyheter

carlfreedmangalleryforthcoming,stockholm,contemporaryart,nordenhake,ivanseal,painting

✨Ivan Seal's @ivanseal recent work is included in Galerie Nordenhake @galerie_nordenhake forthcoming group show 'Background/Foreground' opening in Stockholm on 14th January from 5-8pm. Exhibition runs from 15 January – 20 February, 2016 #ivanseal #painting #nordenhake #stockholm #contemporaryart #forthcoming 📸 Image credit: Ivan Seal they gins after the compelled sermon, 2015 Oil on canvas 70 x 57 cm