Ann Edholm »Trots Allt / In Spite of All«

From razor-sharp shadows lurking over smoky horizons, to a visceral gesture over a smoothly finished surface, her work can be seen as an attempt to reflect on the understanding of human darkness and light. Aided by their titles in German, Swedish, English, and Polish, the works summon literary images of places and situations beyond description. Two of the four large paintings from the Oświęcim series are on view: Oświęcim III (2014–2022) —also presented at her solo exhibition at Ravinen (2023), and Oświęcim IV till Tadeusz Borowski, dedicated to the Polish writer and journalist who during his brief life endured both the Soviet and Nazi regimes and became a witness to the Holocaust in Poland.

The ambivalence between darkness and light can be read in two works: Där mörker är [Where darkness is] and Celadon inom oss [Celadon within us]. In the first, two black daubs stain the painted orange surface of an aluminum sheet, penetrated by two nails projecting from adjacent openings. In the latter, two blue-green smudges gleam atop a black surface, evoking Tadeusz Borowski’s poem Auschwitz sun:

You remember the sun of Oświęcim
and the distant green of meadows lightly lifted by birds into clouds,
not green now, but celadon-white in the clouds. Together we stood, looking into the distance,
and feeling the distant green of meadows and the clouds’ white-celadon as though in us,
as though the hue of distant meadows was our blood or the pulse which beats in us,
as if the world only existed through us, and faded not at all while we exist.

Ann Edholm was born in Stockholm in 1953. She lives and works in Nyköping, Sweden.

Recent solo exhibtions include Bilden pressar mot mitt öga at Ravinen, Båstad, Sweden (2023), and Jerusalem – en installation (with Tom Sandqvist) both in Lund Cathedral and at Ronneby konsthall, Ronneby (both 2022), Dalslands Konstmuseum, Åsensbruk (2021), as well as Edholm/Tungan på ordet, Bildmuseet – Umeå universitet, Umeå (2019), Ann Edholm möter Hilma Af Klint at Strandverket Art Museum, Marstrand (2016).

Further, solo and group exhibition venues include EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (opening 2024), Gallery Gregor Podnar, Vienna and Dunkers kulturhus, Helsingborg (both 2022), Morán Morán, Los Angeles, Borås Art Museum (2018), Galerie Denise René, Paris (2014), Carnegie Art Award 2012, Konstakademien, Stockholm and Karlskrona Konsthall (2012), Millesgården (with Håkan Rehnberg) in Stockholm (2007), Gothenburg Museum of Art (2003), Uppsala Art Museum (2003), Rooseum in Malmö (1996 and 1992), Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt/Main (1995), Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2010, 1995 and 1991), and PS1 in New York (1988). In 2009, she participated in the Tirana Biennial, Albania.

Ann Edholm has worked as a professor of painting at both the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm and the Valand Academy of Arts in Gothenburg. Edholm is a member of the Royal Academy of the Liberal Arts. She is represented by Galerie Nordenhake since 1994.