Håkan Rehnberg By an Oak and a Rock

Stockholm, November 10, 2023 December 16, 2023

Opening: November 10, 12.00–20.00
Artist talk, November 12, 15.00: Håkan Rehnberg in conversation with Aris Fioretos

Håkan Rehnberg is one of Sweden’s most distinguished contemporary artists. For several decades his artistic practice has combined a formal precision with a fundamental interest in the inherent character and possibilities of his materials.

Rehnberg's upcoming exhibition reveals a significant new direction in his work, particularly evident in the new group of sculptures that stand and hang throughout the gallery space. Here, Rehnberg takes into account the things – the objects and materials – in his immediate surroundings and meets their inherent properties, traits and requirements. In what can be called a problem-solving process, Rehnberg creates sculptures that resonate in different ways – some even resembling instruments at rest. In other cases, the intervention is minimal, a sheet bent and cut, with the least possible impact on the original state of the material. Together, the group represents an idiosyncratic and diverse group of protagonists.

The artist describes each individual work as an attempt not to seek answers to but instead to deal with an impossible situation. The sculptures focus on the language-less-ness that he believes is fundamental in his work in which the relationship between the form and the material takes on a new character that is not burdened by language constructions and predetermined rules.

Rehnberg has long chosen to work with one and the same material in his paintings, oil on blasted acrylic glass. Despite the repetition, by turning and twisting, meeting and pushing away, he has persistently expanded the boundaries of his own painting. The exhibition presents a suite of new and recent black and white paintings where the thickly applied gesture that has characterised the works of recent years is now replaced with a double movement where the paint is finally scraped down to a smooth thin surface. Matte black is the only thing that remains. The intense movements have been replaced by vertical, massive forms where the gesture is only hinted at in the contours.

The exhibition also presents a video vignette - Rehnberg's first video work. It presents a brutal scene of transformation and spectacle in an arresting moment from nature's reality.

The entire exhibition is imbued with artistic questioning and enquiry. Earlier this year, Rehnberg formulated his artistic stance in a speech at the Royal Academy of Art:

"I mean that Art does not belong and should be associated with the usable, but that it belongs to the sublime. I would really like to remove art from the realm of the beautiful and transfer it to the sublime. - From measure to measurelessness.

The very experience of the sublime makes one suddenly speechless, stunned, formless and mute, placed outside oneself.

Language and form are destroyed in the wake of the sublime. It is as if the speech or the work of art is not carried out - but held back - and becomes visible in this holding back. And by that I mean an extreme visibility."

From Professionalism och annat, Håkan Rehnberg (2023)

Håkan Rehnberg was born 1953 in Göteborg and currently lives and works in Stockholm. He has exhibited widely both in Sweden and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Nässjö Konsthall (2019), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2015), Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm/Berlin/Mexico City (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2022), Malmö Konstmuseum (2007), Studio A (Otterndorf, 2006), Vida Konsthall, Halltorp, Sweden (2005), and Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tønder, Denmark (2004), Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2002). He has participated in group exhibitions that were presented at The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden (2022), the Sydney Biennale (2010), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (2009), National Art Museum of China, NAMOC, Beijing (2008), the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2003), and the Helsinki City Art Museum (2002). In 2002, the artist was nominated for the Carnegie Art Award, and his work was presented in the same year in the corollary exhibition at the Reykavik Art Museum. He has been a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts since 2000.

Presstext Svenska
Four texts, Håkan Rehnberg – Vid en ek och en klippa

Artist Håkan Rehnberg in conversation with writer Aris Fioretos on the occasion of Rehnberg's solo exhibition "By an Oak and a Rock" at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, November 12, 2023. The talk is in Swedish.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Untitled, 2018, oil on acrylic, 200 x 185 cm.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
der Wink, 2022, aluminium, galvanized steel thread and acid free steel screws, 282 x 80 x 20 cm.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Untitled, 2018, oil on acrylic glass, 67 x 75 cm.
Untitled, 2020, oil on acrylic glass, 170 x 150 cm.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Untitled, 2023, oil on acrylic glass, 220 x 200 cm.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Installation view, photo Viktor Sjödin.
Philological commentary, 2023, oakwood, diabas granite and hot rolled band steel, 178 x 78 x 10 cm.
Untitled, 2023, galvanized steel sheet, oakwood, diabas granite, 26 x 83 x 37 cm.
Untitled, 2023, wood and limestone, 50 x 109 x 19 cm.
Untitled, 2023, galvanized steel sheet, 130 x 37 x 37 cm.