Who’s Been Here? 21 March – 1 April

This exhibition presents the artists Daniel Silver, Dasha Shishkin and Jannis Varelas for the first time in Sweden, and Fredrik Söderberg.

 To be seen is to exist! Mankind wants to be seen and remembered. Throughout the ages, people have portrayed themselves and been portrayed by others. These four artists pursue this tradition of depicting people, and invite you to help them answer the question: Who’s been here?

Artists have always played an important part in portraying the world, people who want to be seen, and also themselves. In the name of artistic licence, artists usher us into other worlds. In the exhibition “Who’s Been Here?”, the archaic, transboundary or symbiotic human body is omnipresent.

Daniel Silver finds his inspiration in how mankind has been portrayed through the ages by Western and African sculptors respectively. In his sculpture series “Letting Go”, for instance, these traditions are juxtaposed. The series is full of references to African sculptures and Greco-Roman artefacts. Daniel Silver’s section of the exhibition includes an installation made with the senior designer at Acne, Jonny Johansson.

Dasha Shishkin’s works are teeming with people interacting with one another and creating lively, pulsating, abstract worlds. Her nervy, expressive style has been compared to that of Egon Schiele at the turn of the 19^th-20^th century. But Dasha Shishkin creates a world that is uniquely her own.

In Jannis Varela’s works, whether they are drawings or videos starring a puppet, the figures oscillate between different identities – woman, man or beast? The video works in this exhibition are based partly on the play The Maids by Jean Genet, and deal with power games, domination and subordination.

 The scenes in Fredrik Söderberg’s works are inspired by rituals from various contexts, ranging from mythology, Egyptology and Tibetan Buddhism, to magic and witchcraft. In recent years, he has explored the relationship between art and occultism and esoteric traditions. Religion and spiritual experiences form a vital element in Söderberg’s oeuvre. The watercolours shown here were based on Aleister Crowley’s pornographic writings in the book Snowdrops from a Curate’s Garden from 1904. 

The exhibition was curated by Sandra Weil, a freelance curator who lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.

All the works in the exhibition are for sale.

 For more information or images, please contact Paulina Sokolow, presso officer, + 46 702 670 923, paulina.sokolow@bukowskis.com.