Kristina Bength: 2011thinking through painting

Between August 15 and October 2 the boiler room at Konsthall C will be tranformed into a studio for the ongoing artistic research project ”Thinking through Painting"; a collaboration between Kristina Bength, Jan Rydén, Sigrid Sandström and Jonatan Habib Engqvist since 2010. During the process, the group has followed each others practices closely as well as visiting philosophers and curators, and above all painting artists in Stockholm, Oslo and New York in order to discuss painting as thinking. During the period in Konsthall C´s boiler room, the group will instead invite colleagues as well as the general public to a discussion about painting as a way of thinking.

In the common studio, the group will investigate processes of thinking involved in painting by engaging in each others work as it happens and not only through studio-talks which they have been performing so far. Collected material from interviews and conversations with both artists and philosophers will be processed and put together with material collected in relation to theoretical texts, exhibitions and their individual practices. Towards the end of the period there will be a seminar for the students at the Royal Institute in Stockholom. Between September 19 and October 2 the general public have the possibility of booking a studio visit in the boiler room through Konsthall C.

”Thinking through painting” attempts to locate the layers of exhibition production that create meaning by focusing on the work in the studio. In other words, the project wishes to investigate the intentional relationships specific to painting and exhibition production and see how they intertwine with on the one hand, perception and embodiment and on the other to a concept based thinking and forms of language. Even if it primarily emanates from the artist’s, curator’s and theorist’s perspective, the investigation indirectly also answers to what might be described as a crises within the academic discipline of Phenomenology when it comes to engaging with several processes involved in contemporary art practice, not the least with regard to painting – where theory can be reduced to a kind of “justification”, “explanation” or “solution” relating to already produced artwork, rather than an open-ended method of investigation during the creative process itself.

"The thinking processes of painting" have until now mostly taken place within the core group. At Konsthall C this conversation will be made public while the artists simultaneously engage with their respective practices. Another dimension of the project is in other words concerned with the relationships between this conversation, the work produced and an audience.

The project "Thinking through painting" was born from a common desire to work in-depth and over a longer period of time within the framework of a flat, non-hierarchal structure where curator and artists work together towards an exhibition that is shaped and nurtured through conversations, readings and a critical reflection of the creative process. By actively formulating critique in this way, we also hope to bridge the gap between theory and artistic practice in a productive way.

It has been made possible with KU-funding from the Royal Institute, support from Helge Axelsson Jonsson Foundation and Konsthall C.

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Kristina Bength artist born in Falun. Lives and works in Stockholm. Educated at Gerlesborgsskolan, Bohuslän, (2003-2005), Valand art academy (2005-2008) and The Royal Institute in Stockholm (2007-2008). She has had solo-shows at LM D galerie, Paris and Galleri Flach, Stockholm (2009, 2011), Trollhättan Kunsthalle(2010), Galleri Pictura in Lund, 2009, Peepshow Galleri 54, Gothenburd, Galleri Se, Falun and Galleri Mejan, Stockholm (2008)

She has also participated in the groupshows Drawing Now, Paris (2011), Pristagare & Receptionsstycken, Kungl. Konstakademien, Stockholm, (2010), Eternal return, Magasinet, Falun, Botnic Studios, Gerlesborg, Volta 5 with Galleri Flach+Thulin, Basel, Market, with Galleri Flach+Thulin, Stockholm, Äga rum, Rättviks Konsthall (2009), Dalarnas museums Konsthall, Falun,The Absent Past, IDKA Kulturkiosken, Gävle, The (deviant) Art Festival, Konsthallen Trollhättan and exhibited at Norrköpings Konsthall (2007) and Konsthallen Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla (2004).

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Sigrid Sandström artist who has been working in the USA for many years, frequently exhibiting in galleries and institutions with solo-shows at a.o. Inman Gallery, Houston, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York and The Company, Los Angeles. 2004 she had a major solo exhibition at Frye Art Museum, Seattle.

She has particiapted in exhibtions at The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Moderna Museet and the National Museum of Art in Stockholm. Sandström has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Academie Minerva, Groningen, Holland (1997) and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Yale University, USA (2001).

She has been artist–in-residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2001) and Core Residency Program på Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2001-03). 2008 Sandström recieved grants from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Sigrid Sandström is currently professor at the Royal Institute in Stockholm. She has previously taught at Bard College, New, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston and Glassell School of Art, Houston.

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Jan Rydén artist who also has a text-based practice. He lives and works in Stockholm. He has studied at the Royal Institute in Stockholm, as well as the architecture program at the Royal Institute. He also participated in "Art in public Space" at Konstfack University for arts and crafts and is one of the founders of Project Reko, www.projektreko.org
He has exhibited in collaboration with Konsthall C (2010), at Jakobsbergs konsthall (2009),The house of culture/Kulturhuset in Stockholm, the university park in Linköping and Fredsgatan 12 (2008). He participated in FUTURUM 2008, Galleri Operating Place, Horror Vacui, at the Royal Institute, Stockholm (2006). Solo exhibitions: "An Inquiry into the Nature of Plastic Idols”, MFA Show, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm (2008), "Idyll", Galleri Mejan, Stockholm (2005)
Represented by; Järfälla kommun, Universitetsparken, Linköpings University, Project for Tensta allé, with Ulrika Wachtmeister, Tensta, TenstaBo 06.
Selected publications: ”Leidsche Rijn Re-visited: Et in Arcadia Ego” i Cinema Studio, Ed. Apolonija Sustersic, 2009. ”Vita kilar” (with Martin Karlsson) i ”Skräpgrönt”, Ed. Markus Degerman, 2007 and ”Wandering about, Drifting” in ”Shifting boundaries” Ed. Regina Möller, 2006.

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Jonatan Habib Engqvist theorist and curator based in Stockholm. Has previously worked at Södertörn University (2004-07), the Royal Institute (2006-09) and as curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2008-09) where he among other things co-founded the experimental program the Studio. Currently employed as project manager at Iaspis.

Engqvist is also editor in mischief at tsnoK.se and producer of international programing and exhibitions. Has written for and edited journals like Glänta, Ord&Bild, Motiv, Input och Divan. Co-editor to the book Dharavi: Documenting Informalities (Stockholm 2008 & New Dehli 2009). His latest free-lance projects include Informal Cities at the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay (2009), Meriç Algün Ringborg, The Concise Book of Visa Application Forms, Gallery Naïve (2010) and the exhibition and publication The Nordic Third World Country? - Icelandic Art in Times of Crises at Färgfabriken, Stockholm and Färgfabriken Norr, Östersund (2010)