Texans [don’t] do it better [at all]?

This piece of information is hilarious… or maybe just sad. A Texas elementary school teacher has been suspended for taking the kids to an art museum, showing, among other things, this Rodin and this Jean Arp. Apparantly the parents complained about the nudity.

I’m guessing a field trip to Gothenburg is out of the question?

Small city - big shows

Norrköpings konstmuseum proves that not only the big institutions can pull off great shows. This fall they present a new video installation from Katarina Löfström (yet another of those children of the 1970s that are taking over the art scene more and more these days), new works from Helen Billgren (not my favourite to be perfectly honest, but she is of course very renowned artist) and a feature show with Scandinavian female modernists from 1900-1930 that includes not only the household names, like Sigrid Hjertén and Vera Nilsson, but also less well known artists, like Maj Bring (the painting featured in this post is her painting Fasttrain South from 1923).

Stripes and dartboards

Jacob Dahlgren is a genius. His latest piece - Heaven Is A Place On Earth - consists of bathroom scales and aluminium. It is currently on display in the newly opened Bonniers Konsthall.

Dahlgren's craftsmanship is so precise, yet it spans over so many media. And he isn’t afraid to use humour in his work. Here’s a series of pictures from Signes d'abstraction, a performance with 300 people dressed in striped T-shirts. This work is entitled Root Vegetable.

Much of his work circles around materials, shapes and manufactured objects – that he seems to have a rather duchampianesque relation to, but there are several deeper layers under the visible surface. But, I don’t feel like analyzing (or overanalyzing, perhaps…) today. Sometimes you just want to enjoy art. And Dahlgren’s work is perfect for that.

Raining dogs?

Dagens Nyheter reports of a strange phenomenon in Linköping, Sweden. Apparantly anonymous people are placing home made sculptors of dogs in public places around town.

It all started when this sculpture by artist Stina Opitz was vandalised last spring. The head was chopped off and the artwork consequently removed. But one morning a new dog stood in the old one's place. And all around Linköping other sculptors started to appear, mainly dogs, but also other animals, like slugs, tigers and sharks.

As it turns out, a group of you artists calling themselfs Akademi Vreta Kloster, is responsible for starting up this underground art movement. Judging by the name, and their press brief, they are pushing for a rather conservative agenda "against destruction, unsocial behaviours and occurences"

However charming this might seem, I like my dogs better alive.

Writings on the wall

I don't know what this site is all about (since most of it is not in English) but I suspect it's some sort of art project including mural paintings of buildings and cityscapes. A sort of "painting the city onto the city"-thing is probably going on here.

What really caught my attention, though, was this lovely little cityscape generator called simply Konstruktor. With it anyone can produce their own pictures in a wonderful Fritz Lang inspired style. It takes a while to figure out the buttons (again, no instructions in English...) but it's definatly worth it.

Revenge of the geeks

Is this any good? Lia Halloran exhibits her paintings in New York right now, and since that is a little bit too far away for me to pop in on my lunch break I don’t have the advantage of seeing her work first hand.

Clearly there is something a bit odd going on here. All of Halloran’s pictures seem to deal with questions that were dominant in the art world during the 1920s and -30s. At the same time the aesthetics of her work could be taken from a flashy web design, or even a cd cover.

About a year ago I tried to analyze the current role of internet aesthetics but I seemed to have missed the most important part: how the new geek taste invades other areas of public life. Halloran’s art is by no means the first example of this, but it is a very obvious one. It’s hard to believe that this was in fact painted, and not photoshopped.

But is it any good? Well, it’s not exactly my cup of tea yet, but I’ll give it a chance to grow before I make up mind…

Don't forget...

I think it’s a good habit to remind people of the things that are truely great. So, here is – once again – a link to the San Francisco based ReBar Group and their latest happening that took place last month.

And don’t forget to read Cabinet Magazine – made by pretty much the same people.

Recommended photography site

The Helsinki School is the biggest thing to happen to Scandinavian Fine Art Photography since… eehhh… well, I don’t know… but it’s been a very long time since something this good and this consistent happened.

This is an excellent site for getting to know the Helsinki School. I’m personally very fond of Illka Halso and Santeri Tuori, but all of the artists are really good. Unfortunately the site doesn’t allow hot linking, but please browse around… it’ll be worth your while.

On the outskirts of Babylon

Lars Vilks regularly publishes an updated list of the top 15 Swedish artists featured on Artfacts. In September a young (or "youngish", I don’t know… he is two years older than me…) artist that I really like climbed to a very nice 8th place on the list.

Make sure to check out Jonas Dahlberg’s work if you get the opportunity. He is one of the new generation of video artists, and unlike a lot of the older artists in the same genre he knows how to take advantage of the medium. My favourite is still One Way Street with an extreme feeling of detachment and isolation clinging to the viewer. But his most appreciated piece is probably Invisible Cities from 2004.

The combination of architecture and visual art is confusing and very attractive. I’m never really sure of what is on top of what. Is it about the theory of human isolation, life in the city, or is it about the buildings and streets themselves? My guess is both.

Birds and boxes

It’s hard to come to terms with what Thomas Edetun is doing. He likes birds and boxes, that’s for sure… and judging from his classic technique I’m betting he likes painting in itself too. And birds. And boxes. And Dick Bengtsson perhaps? How about Corot?

And birds.