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MIKE WEISS - Martin Wickström

566 views · Published 12 April 2014 · 6:11 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: NYC GALLERY OPENINGS · 2014 · Entertainment

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Martin Wickström
Perfume River
Curated by: Mike Weiss

Mike Weiss Gallery
520 W.24th St.
New York, NY 10011 

April 10th - May 10th, 2014
Opening:  April 10th 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Mike Weiss Gallery is pleased to present Swedish artist Martin Wickström's 
inaugural solo exhibition in New York. Blending signage, landscape, figuration, 
and Sixties paraphernalia into montage, Perfume River presents twelve oil-on-
canvas paintings of cinematic proportion and enigmatic presence. Composed 
into scenes and moods with palpable depth, Wickström's scrapbook-like 
composition intertwines both collective memory and introspective biography, 
reminiscent of our uncertain past and nostalgic for histories that never were. It is 
through the artist's line of sight that new, lingering meaning is given -- that, or 
none at all.

Wickström references his extensive world travels, namely an impactful stint in 
Vietnam, as well as his history of overlapping paint, found object, light, audio 
and installation. His process splices found imagery and personal photography 
together, incorporating a kind of chance encounter that lives on in his 
photoconceptual realism. Interplay of light and focus procures an air of mystery, 
a visual poetry which resonates with our subconscious and curiosity. Repeating 
imagery of vibrant plastic buckets, reflective pools, and retro graphic text in 
sequence feels decidedly Pop, even reminiscent of propaganda. Through this 
fusion of somewhat dissonant aspects, the works maintain a certain sobriety -- 
an unmistakable façade that bespeaks a world of meaning lurking beneath the 
surface. Materials then assume a nexus of dyads -- water both beautiful and 
catastrophic; plastic transformative and artificial; perfume intoxicating and 
pungent; memory sweet and haunting.

Like documentary vignettes the paintings converse as puzzle pieces within a 
greater whole -- each a meditation on our metaphysical quests. To be sure, 
Wickström's pseudo-narrative experiments with this lack of overt meaning, even 
insertion of meaning -- like an empty vessel to be filled, or a vehicle for broader 
truths in this fast-changing world of ours.

Martin Wickström lives and works in Stockholm and is one of the preeminent 
living painters in Sweden. His work resides in the collections of the Museum of 
Modern Art in Stockholm, The Gothenburg Art Museum, and the Malmö Museum 
among others. He shows with Angelika Knäpper at Lars Bohman Gallery in 
Stockholm.


Music by:
Chill Carrier - A New Day

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