Linda Spåman and Her Art

Presentation: Linda Spåman and her ART!

Date: 29th of Aug, Monday
Entrance: 5 RMB
Place: TCG Nordica UP Gallery (Xiba Road No.101/Loft)
Tel: 0871-4114692

TCG Nordica residence artist Linda Spåman will host the English corner on Monday 20:00, 29th of August. We invite you come to share with Swedish illustrator Linda’s art together!

Artist summer in Kunming: Linda Spåman
Artist Linda Spåman is the Swedish Västra Götaland scholarhip holder of 2011, and is already in Kunming, working in the TCG Nordica guest studio…
In collaboration with Västra Götaland (VG), ArtsNordica has been running an Artist in Residence program since 2002. The 2011 VG scholarship holder, artist Linda Spåman, stays in Kunming from June 11 to September 1, and works in the guest studio.

During her time in Kunming, Linda Spåman has an exchange with Chinese female artist Bai Xuejuan, VG’s Chinese counterpart scholarship holder of 2011.

The annual Västra Götaland scholarship goes to an artist who is from or connected to the Västra Götaland region (Sweden). Read more about the Västra Götaland Scholarship Programme and previous scholarship holders here:
Västra Götaland Regionen AiR
…or go straight to Västra Götaland’s homepage to learn more and for contact information to Dan Fröberg, responsible for the programme:
Västra Götaland Region International AIR Programme

Lovisa Henoch: The World Is Yours

The World Is Yours
TCG Nordica residence artist Lovisa Henoch’s workshop & exhibition

Exhibition time: 20:00, Monday, 24th of January 2011
Add: Up Gallery space, TCG Nordica, Xibalu 101, Kunming

Swedish artist Lovisa Henoch had her residence program from 12th of Nov. 2010 to 25th of Jan. 2011 at TCG Nordica gallery in Kunming. She developed her art project about travelling, used sketches and diary to present travel, thoughts and stories. Lovisa presented a lecture for the students of Wenhua Collage of Yunnan Arts University on 15th of Dec. 2010 at TCG Nordica, the topic is Education in Sweden and her own art project, the students liked it very much.
On this exhibition and workshop, she would like to share the works and stories with local people, just the day before she lives. We are pleased to invite you to attend exhibition, free entrance, and you will get an art cake from the artist!

Artist statement: The World Is Yours

Before I went to Kunming as artist in residence at TCG Nordica I was a little nerves to go by myself and a friend text message me the world is yours to make me feel better. This sentence was staying in my mind and I was thinking that it was quite vulgar in a way and was telling something about have lucky many young people are from the west world.

Now I been in Kunming for two month and during my stay I met many young people that travel around in China. In Kunming they stay for a couple of days and stays at youth hostels as the Hump or the Cloudlands and go and visit the Green Lake Park and the Bamboo temple. The must there after travel south to Cambodia, Laos or Vietnam. Last year I did a trip like this, travelling around in China with train and documented my trip by making drawings and writing travel journal. On this trip I really felt that I was getting perspective on my life and saw new possibilities. I started to believe that all people where ment to be nomad at least for a period in their lives. But the truth is that there’s only a small group of people that have the privilege to be able to have this kind of lifestyle.

My project is based on my split thoughts around the backpacking culture. And in a way I see it as a represent for the western cultures view of the importance of founding your self and always try to make personal progress.

Photos from the opening:

Michaela Peterson: “THE UNINTENTIONAL”

THE UNINTENTIONAL
Works in progress by Michaela Peterson(Swedish Artist)

Opening Time: 2010/Aug/21, 15：00
Exhibition Duration: 2010/Aug/21–Aug/28
Gallery Opening time: 11:00–22:00, Closed on Sunday
Tel: 0871-4114692
Website: www.tcgnordica.com

Texts from the artist:

Most of my works has its origin in the idea of “the unintentional”.
Things, that are meant to be something else, spaces left over , words, meant in one way, but saying something else as well, and so on.
Things that nobody pays attention to, fascinates me, and I like to use it in my works.

My material is often things in our surroundings used every day.
During my stay in China I have looked for material I normally don’t use in Sweden. So for example ricepaper, Chinese ink and everyday things.
The beauty in every day life. A tribute to weekday things.

One part of the exhibition is titled ”Phrasebook”
It contents six works made by waterprint on paper.
The texts comes from a phrasebook. the kind of dictionary with short phrases you need as a help on a journey in a foreign country.
I find the texts beautiful in a common and poetic way
The texts are in English and Chinese as I would need them here in China.

Thanks to the staff of Nordica for all your help and kind patience when answering my many questions

–

Artist Michaela Peterson is the Swedish Västra Götaland scholarhip holder of 2010, and is already in Kunming, working in the TCG Nordica guest studio…
In collaboration with Västra Götaland (VG), ArtsNordica has been running an Artist in Residence program since 2002. The 2010 VG scholarship holder, artist Michaela Peterson, stays in Kunming from June 2 to August 31, and works in the guest studio. Read more…

AiR: Lina Baeckström in Kunming

Swedish artist Lina Baeckström was invited to live and work in Kunming for one month, here is the introduction from the artist:

I was TCG Nordica’s Artist in Residence during the month of April this year, but my journey began back in 2007. For one year the city of Kunming in southwest China was the place I called home. I was one of the culture course students and also a volunteer in Nordica’s Art Gallery. Through my work in the gallery I had the opportunity to meet many great artists and see a lot of art, both local and foreign.

Two years later I returned to China to start working as an artist myself. In March 2010 I arrived in Beijing and during two weeks I explored the famous 798 art district which gave me a fantastic insight into contemporary Chinese art. Some of the photos I took near the art district are currently showing on the island of Gotland in Sweden where I have my very first photo exhibition called “751”.

As an artist in residence in Kunming I worked mainly with photography. My idea was to materialize my impressions of the Chinese society, with focus on allocation of power and Chinese history. I built different settings out of red and yellow LEGO that were photographed towards a blue background. Some settings were built with a specific place in mind like the Forbidden City; others were models after my perception of circumstances in the country in general. During my AIR month I gave a talk at English Corner in Nordica on the subject: “my 798 experience” and showed all my photos from Beijing and artefacts I bought in 798. While in Kunming I also had the opportunity to go to an art community in western Kunming to visit some artist studios and see their art. Having lived in USA, Sweden, UK and China I’ve come to realise how different our perspectives of the world can be depending on where we grow up. To incorporate this idea into the project I bought big round lanterns that symbolize different worlds once painted on. Working as an artist in residence I learned a lot about the various aspects of the life of an artist. The journey from idea to finished art work can truly be a magnificent roller coaster.

Lina Baeckström

AiR: Michaela Peterson

Artist summer in Kunming: Michaela Peterson

Artist Michaela Peterson is the Swedish Västra Götaland scholarhip holder of 2010, and is already in Kunming, working in the TCG Nordica guest studio…

In collaboration with Västra Götaland (VG), ArtsNordica has been running an Artist in Residence program since 2002. The 2010 VG scholarship holder, artist Michaela Peterson, stays in Kunming from June 2 to August 31, and works in the guest studio.

During her time in Kunming, Michaela Peterson has an exchange with Chinese female artist Xu Yun, VG’s Chinese counterpart scholarship holder of 2010. Click here to read more about Xu Yun.

Michaela Peterson will also hold a workshop at TCG Nordica, where she will present her artworks as well as teach art students the technique of making watermark on paper.

The annual Västra Götaland scholarship goes to an artist who is from or connected to the Västra Götaland region (Sweden). Read more about the Västra Götaland Scholarship Programme and previous scholarship holders here:
Västra Götaland Regionen AiR

…or go straight to Västra Götaland’s homepage to learn more and for contact information to Dan Fröberg, responsible for the programme:
Västra Götaland Region International AIR Programme

Photos from TCG Nordica’s guest studio, of Michaela Peterson and her work, summer 2010.

Workshop:

Visit local artists:

Janeric Johansson’s solo exhibition “Light Fight Night”

Swedish artist Janeric Johansson’s solo exhibition “Light Fight Night”

Janeric Johansson has since 1999 established a deep friendship with artists, scholars and young people in Yunnan. He has arranged five solo art exhibitions in Kunming and Simao, by using the TCG Nordica gallery in Kunming Loft as his platform.
Through the unique view of his works, his exhibitions have made a lasting impact on the audience. The passionate elaborations have been met with a tremendous response from the art community.
Janeric Johansson worked as the Gallery Director of TCG Nordica for a year in 2004 and 2005. He has in addition planned and curated a series of important exhibitions in Kunming.

Janeric Johansson was born in Sweden in 1950. As an artist he is self-taught, but the strictness and obvious talent reflected in his art, reveals that this is beyond doubt an experienced professional.
He often uses acrylic and oil, installing metal structures on his paintings. This encourages the audience to view the art works from different angles. Viewing from each new point, you will discover different aspects of his art, and every subtle change will increase the audience’s curiosity and stimulate their creativity.
Moreover, the application of every symbol and the schema of his work is reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code, but still needs the artist’s help to decrypt it.
Janeric Johansson’s talent in telling stories has proved enchanting, enabling the audience to vividly understand both art and artist. This is why, of all the exhibitions we have, his are the only ones where there’s sometimes a bigger audience on the final day than on the opening.

Janeric Johanssons’ art stimulates people to think, to feel and to tell. He encourages his audience not to view reality from one angle only. Sometimes you should move and view things from another point. You will then discover a totally different aspect of both his art and of reality.

The exhibition “Light Fight Night” is named by the artist himself. It’s a continuation of his consistent philosophy through the years — dualism, empathy and certain values. One of the pieces, viewed from the left showes the Chinese word “dong” (east), while from the right you will see the word “xi” (west). In another work it’s written “justice, peace and love” on one side. On the other side is “arrogance, war and hatred”. In a third work there’s a lonely horse on one side, and on the other side horses are kissing each other.
The theme of the exhibition is darkness and light, and the unceasing struggle between them. The 25 art pieces in this exhibition have all been created by Janeric Johansson in the last two years at his studio in Kunming’s Loft area.

The exhibition “Light Fight Night” will be presented on April the 17th at 8 pm, at TCG Nordica, Kunming Loft. It ends on May the 8th.

Looking forward to see you here!

TCG Nordica Gallery
2010.04.07

Eleven years in Yunnan

Eleven years ago I was invited to take part in the First International Festival of Arts in Kunming. The Festival took place the first week of June, but I decided to come 1 month earlier to make a project with 10 students at the Yunnan Arts Institute. At that time no one had heard about Kunming in Sweden. But my friend Anna Mellergard had moved here a year before and she also took part in this project.

The same month I was also invited to present a solo exhibition at the Upriver Gallery in Kunming, one of few avant-garde galleries in China at the time. I didn’t realise how important that exhibition would be. I was the first international artist to hold an exhibition there and for many art students it was the first opening they had ever attended. Most of the Kunming artist attended the opening, including Fang Lijun and Yue Minjun from Beijing. I expected this to be a very local event, far away from Beijing, but suddenly I found myself in the most inspiring and developing art world.

When the 250 artists, musicians and dancers from 40 countries arrived a month later, I was waiting together with my Chinese students and artist friends at the courtyard of the Art Institute. I was supposed to be a part of this international group, but when they were coming out of the buses I realised that I belonged more to the Chinese group. And that feeling has remained with me ever since, and I have kept coming back to China for ten years now.

When T/Café Gallery opened a year later, I was the first artist to exhibit there. For a year, 2004-05, I lived in Kunming together with my wife Eva, and since then I have been coming two times per year. Since 2007 I have also been sharing a studio with Liu Lifen in Kunming Loft.

Three years ago, I was honored to represent Yunnan Province at The Third Guiyang Art Biennal in Guizhou Province.
Kunming has become my second home, mostly because of TCG Nordica and the deep friendships I have developed with many people in Kunming.

Today, Kunming is no longer a blind spot in Sweden. TCG Nordica has put it on the map. Most of the Chinese artists who have been involved in exhibitions and project in Scandinavia have also visited our home in Sweden. This has been a pleasure for my wife and me, and the friendships has been even deeper.
All the paintings in this exhibition are produced in my studio here in Kunming. They are dealing with different topics that have filled my mind the last years. They are an attempt to bridge the gap between east and west through asking questions and trying to understand the different cultures. In my works, I describe people – represented by horses – as they are searching for meaning in life, dealing with darkness and light, western and Chinese thinking. The different angles in my paintings force you to see and change your mind when you are moving in the room.

I hope that the questions I ask and the things that have been interesting to me during the work in the studio, also can be of interest to you as a visitor. You are important to me, because my paintings are not finished until they have met their audience.

Kunming april 2010
Janeric Johansson
Artist.

AIR: Sara-Vide Ericson

Sara-Vide Ericson worked as Artist in Residence in TCG Nordica’s guest studio, August – November 2009.

Artist Sara-Vide Ericson graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden last summer (2009), and then came straight to Kunming to work as an TCG Nordica Artist in Residence.

During her four months stay she worked with oil paintings for an exhibition in Stockholm in 2010, as well as visited Chinese artists and got familiar with the Chinese surroundings.

Photo: Sara-Vide visits Zhang Yongsheng’s studio. By Anders Gustafsson

Cecilia Jansson’s Workshop at Yunan Arts University

Swedish artist, Örebro Art School Teacher Cecilia Jansson had her Artist-in-residence program at TCG Nordica from 2009/8/6 to 10/30, during her stay, she cooperated with Yunnan Arts University students for 2 weeks, and then had their open studio exhibition on the 18th of Sep.

Introduction to the Open Studio Exhibition
by Cecilia Jansson

TCG Nordica’s residence artist Cecilia Jansson cooperated with Sculpture Studio of Fine Art Collage of Yunnan Art Institute’s students for three weeks, on the 18th of September, she hold an opening studio exhibition with all students, all students and teachers gave Cecilia and this cooperation with very high appreciation.

All human are not artists but all artists are human. That is maybe the only thing artists through history have in common.

There are no such things as famous animal artists or art exhibitions for cats. Why? Because art is depending on the ability, and will, to understand symbols. I am fascinated by how we give different values to symbols to be able to communicate. All human societies are depending on these common symbols to function. Some symbols have become universal. We have for example given gold a high value compared to iron. That is something we learn to understand, an animal does not.

The focus in this workshop has been to explore some of these symbols and use them to describe ourselves. One of the tasks I gave my students was to make a self portrait without drawing their face. From these self portraits they took some symbols and put them together in an enormous drawing. What happened then was that their drawings began to communicate with the symbols surrounding them and their value changed. The following days, we continued to draw, putting in pictures that we thought should be there for different reasons. We had to “read” the drawing to be able to develop it.

The choice of material and scale is of big importance in all artworks. I choose the cheapest paper and charcoal and a monumental scale. Change one of these conditions to something else, and the reading of the work would be completely different.

I hope you will enjoy this exhibition and I want to encourage you to talk to the students or the other visitors about the drawing and give them your personal interpretation, and listen to their, that is the purpose of this show!

want to thank Yunnan Arts Institute and TCG Nordica for making this workshop possible. And of course, thank all the students, you have been working hard and it has been a pleasure to see your development.

By Cecilia Jansson

Lina Persson – From Mount Huan to Sheshan Mountain Part-1

TCG Nordica had some years cooperation with Västra Götaland Regionen in this Artist-In-Residence program, we had an artist exchange project with Nordic Watercolor Museum. In this summer, we invited Swedish artist Lina Persson come to China, living and working here, she is one of the Västra Götaland’s grantees, she stayed in China for 3 months, from 2009/6/3-8/30. And then she had her installation exhibtion at TCG Nordica Gallery space.

Lina Persson – From Mount Huan to Sheshan Mountain

Lina Persson is a residence artist from Sweden invited by TCG Nordica, she lived and worked in Kunming for three months since June, she is very interested in space and astronomy, before she leaves, she presented an exhibition of her recently works made in Kunming, and many local audience were interested in, and really enjoined it.
Here are the informations about her exhibition and idea.

Lina Persson – From Mount Huan to Sheshan Mountain, part I

2009, 26 Aug 16:00 – 18:00
TCG Nordica Gallery

Exhibition opening and book release of A Taikonauts Journey, and have your portrait taken as a taikonaut (pick up your photograph during September).

Of tales told
I have made a book
With time
And my love of hoarding
The matter sent me by friends
From the four corners
Has grown into a pile

-Pu Songling, Strange Tales from a Chinese studio

I traveled to Yuan Yang expecting the astonishing scenery of the Hani rice terraces. But wherever I went, fog and mist surrounded me. But when standing, staring into the whiteness sometimes suddenly a wind created an opening and landscape and distant villages suddenly pop up around me. I recalled the story of Mountain City by Pu Songling in which suddenly one day a whole city appear on the distant top of mount Huan, where there shouldn’t be a single house. But just as it appeared it suddenly shrinks and disappears. Songling wrote his tales in the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasty, In such chaotic times with many changes, fast development and break with traditions points of references are lost. In such mental weightlessness the rhetoric of journalism, storytelling, science and the fantastical, intertwine and the stories of contemporary life sometimes seems strange. The science fiction genre was also born out of such a time, in the British industrialization of big changes, belief in progress and future values. Now, the economy of the future is often believed to be tourism. And Yuan Yuang is also no longer only a rice farming community, the terraces has become big works of land art, monuments that thousands of tourists visit every year. Together with thousands of tourists I also went to Sheshan mountain to have the longest possible experience of a total solar eclipse. Ten minutes of total blackness. When I came back to Kunming a couple of weeks later the city had transformed; new buildings, trees and streets, where before there had only been holes in the ground.

“Live From Earth”-Carl G Torstenson’s solo exhibition

TCG Nordica-UP Gallery
Opening: 2008.11.24, Monday, 20:00
Duration: 2008.11.24-12.24
tel: 0871-4114962
Add: TCG Nordica, Chuangku, Xibalu 101#, Kunming
www.tcgnordica.com

Carl G Torstenson born in Uppsala Sweden 1948
As an artist he is working with sculpture, painting, and installations, mostly conseptional art or art projects on a theme. In theater and museums he is working with stage design, costumes and more. He started at the theater forty years ago and had his first solo art exhibition in -73.
Since then there have been around fifty solo exhibitions, mostly in Sweden, but also in the USA, Germany, Finland , Japan and Norway.
Since -90 he has worked with his art only and “œmaking rooms” is now in the center.
At first it was mostly impressionistic painting but from the beginning of the eighties the inner rooms slowly took over and the work with the theater and the art of his own was more and more influenced by each other.
He is now working in all materials, often in long time projects, often with existential problems like in the rice project Grow Now ltd that contains questions like who has the right to take patent on living materials, as seeds for example.
Rice is a material that he has bin using since -98 in many installations in various themes. One was about the Iraq war called “This is not a wedding”
Other themes have been “Predestination”, what are we borne to be or how to live and similar questions.
All the exhibitions usually contain both paintings and objects.
Participation in many international projects like Eventa II, III, and V on themes like: Wind, Water and Mankind.
During the year -07 there were many art projects in churches, and the latest was in Nykoping called “To measure what can not be measured”.
Carl G Torstenson has also made many public assignments and then often used sculpture and worked in different materials as a medium.
For the artwork and coming exhibitions in Kunming and Sweden Carl G Torstenson has together with the artist Annika Haglund collected local materials like soil and indigo and other nature materials during a two and a half months journey, all the way by train and bus from Sweden through Mongolia to Beijing, Inner Mongolia and then small mountain villages down to Kunming.

Exhibition in TCG Nordica KUNMING
by Carl G Torstenson

“LIVE FROM EARTH”
The impressions for this exhibition that I have called “LIVE FROM EARTH” comes from the present yourney through Asia together with the artist Annika Haglund
The trip began more than three months ago in Sweden and then we have been traveling with train all the way through Russia , Mongolia , Inner Mongolia, to Beijing and all the way down to Kunming where we are right now and have been working in a studio at TCG Nordica, a fantastic and inspiring place to work at and with so very nice people !
For this artwork, my exhibition in Kunming and also for coming projects in Sweden we have during this long trip collected local materials such as earth in different colors like the deep red Yunnan earth , Indigo blue and other nature materials for to use in the artwork in different ways.
Along the way we have been staying long periods in small villages high up in the mountains and there lived by the minority people. We have seen them working with the earth. Planting and digging, weaving, dying the fabrics and many other things coming from nature. Working hard along the steep mountainsides and there making it possible to grow on the small terraces. Also seen they carry everything they need up and down these mountains.
This project is a tribute for to grow the earth as well as for them who work with the earth and live in symbiosis with nature.
Then there is this question, is it the last generation we now see that is putting there hands in the earth or in the pot of Indigo?
.On the feather way through the Asian countries, that after Kunming goes to Vietnam and Cambodia the plan is to work and do small installations along the way where it is possible. The plan is also then to use local materials.