PARADIS

7 May  – July 30 2022  | GALLERI SKARPANS, SALTVIX ALAND

Poster

FEATURED WORKS

Paradise #1, 2019
Oil on linen
91.5 x 91.5 cm

Paradise #2, 2019
Oil on linen
91.5 x 91.5 cm

Paradise #3, 2019
Oil on linen
91.5 x 91.5 cm

Driftwood, 2021
Oil on linen
61 x 61 cm

Tempo #1  2021
Oil on linen
61 x 61 cm

Tempo #2 2021
Oil on linen
61 x 61 cm

Tempo #3 2021
Oil on linen
61 x 61 cm

Stillness of Time 2021
Oil on linen
153 x 183 cm 

Esperance 2021
Oil on linen
153 x 183 cm

Awakened dream 2021
Oil on linen
200 x 245 cm

Frozen Heartbeat #2 2021
Oil on linen
100 x 30 cm

Graceful 2021
Oil on linen
59 x 175 cm

PRESS RELEASE

“Galleri Skarpans announces PARADISE, an exhibition of new oil paintings by Danelle Bergstrom, inspired by The Åland Islands”

FINLAND, May 2022–Galleri Skarpans, a contemporary art gallery located in the Åland Islands, Finland, is pleased to present an exhibition of new oil paintings by Danelle Bergstrom, with the largest paintings spanning almost two meter in width. This will be the first solo exhibition Bergstrom held at Galleri Skarpans and a major exhibition of Bergstrom since the portraits of the former Finnish president Tarja Halonen unveiled at the Åland Art Museum in 2021. The exhibition will run from 7 May to 30 July 2022.

 

Curated by Leila Cromwell-Morgan Lönnroth, curator and owner of the Gallery, PARADIS is an exhibition about nature. PARADISE  means living in harmony with Mother Nature, appreciating its diversity and challenges, and respecting her power and fragility. Nature is fundamental to the human existence on earth andthe exhibition aims to encourage the audience to re-examine the connection that exists between humans and nature.

 

As an Australian visual artist based in both Australia and Finland, Bergstrom is well known for both her suggestive landscapes and exquisite portrait paintings. Nature is an infinite source of inspiration for Bergstrom, where she finds metaphors to express her innermost feelings, thoughts and experiences onto her canvases. Bergstrom paints her inner landscape, and her pieces from the Åland Islands convey both gentleness and proud potency. Bergstrom’s strong brush strokes communicate the juxtaposition of soft peacefulness combined with nature’s most majestic force.

 

The individual pieces in the exhibition join together in a subtle whisper that vibrates a fragile and powerful message to the viewer. The works in the exhibition portray a range of differing sceneries of The Åland Islands. In 2019, when Bergstrom started this series, the strongest ever recorded storm in Finland called “Alfrida” had swept across Åland. The resilience of the Åland people is echoed in the landscape, with vast efforts to clean up and utilise the fallen timbers and replant trees for the next generation is captured in the paintings. In Bergstrom’s painting, it appears calm on the surface yet there is a tension building in the shadows. Nature is a metaphor for how fragile both our world and our lives are. Without care for each other, for our society and nature, our world is fragile both on a personal, national, and environmental level. The largest painting in the exhibition, the Awakened Dream, is a symbol for the road ahead.

 

“In the months that have passed since completing this body of work, we have seen and felt the momentous, distressing and irreversible events, most significantly, the brutal and senseless war on our doorstep that threatens our entire global existence; emphasising how fragile and precarious Paradise really is.” said Danelle Bergstrom.

 

 

 

 

Exhibition date: 7 May-30 July 2022.Vernissage: 17:45-19:45 on 6 May 2022, Friday.

 

Opening speakers will include Mr Nils-Erik Eklundthe Honorary Consul of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Iceland and the Australian ambassador to Finland, Sweden and Latvia Bernard Philip.