Claire Fontaine "working Together" November 3 - December 10, 2011 Metro Pictures 519 west 24th Street New York 10011, by craniv boyd.

Claire Fontaine "working Together" November 3 - December 10, 2011 Metro Pictures 519 west 24th Street New York 10011, by craniv boyd.

Difficult art work that looks as if it is protest of being art objects. A recent exhibition by the Paris based, artist collective called, Claire Fontaine, after a brand of stationary, was that in fact, difficult. One of the most memorable moments of the exhibition were the semi transparent plastic bags hanging from the ceiling with the content of, empty beer and soda cans. The refuse as component, of an installation lending an insider feel to a hermetic exhibition that had the appearance of a private joke, or a party, held on an industrial urban rooftop that one has missed.

in the front room of the Gallery Metro Pictures, was a silk screen painting that, bared the appearance of a 60-s vintage Warhol painting,  think of Nose Job from the year 1963 in the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art. On this diptych was a line drawing of a wolf, growling on one panel cowering on the other, the poles of aggression and obedience both images. The heading in french codified the images as that of having an appropriated provenance, most likely from a textbook in french, about the socio-biology or behavior of wolves.

Past this room with the wolf paintings, was a iron scaffold, and numerous paintings of written words from snatches of conversation, between, Jay -Z, an American multi millionaire entertainer, and more recently art collector, and Richard Prince, an American artist, born in the Panama Zone, who has had the distinction of a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. These paintings are jokes, and blatantly refer to the joke Paintings series by Richard Prince. Familiarity with the names of Jay-Z and Richard Prince precludes understanding of the super-flat art work, in short this room of Claire Fontaine's "working Together" is art work about dry tastes in the art world, that strange global village of  Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, New York City, London. The scaffolding makes the weak paintings with horrible content, part of an ironic installation, the apathetic placement of the trash, and aluminum cans, only helps to fuel an expression of intellectual despair, dismay perhaps at the acceptance of terrible Joke paintings by a celebrated artist like Richard Prince, or a more general seance of existential discomfort with the role of being a Paris based art collective, and performing a gallery show, in New York. 

In another room was a self-defense instructional video, of impeccable quality, superior lamp projection, appropriate sound befitting the gallery space. Claire Fontaine may be truly, careless in their "paintings" however, their video art was nearly faultless in its presentation. Viewers were left with the concerns of: what does this instructional video of clothed middle aged men on a gymnastic mat, mock fighting, have to do with the conceptual concerns of the other art objects, in the other rooms of Metro Pictures. By-in-large "working together" had the appearance of a collective artistic effort of conceptualized confusion, where the one thing that was spot on, was the installation of the video work. by craniv boyd. 

Maurizio Cattelan: All. November 4th, 2011, January 22, 2012, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, by craniv boyd.

Maurizio Cattelan: All. November 4th, 2011, January 22, 2012,  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, by craniv boyd. 

You are an artist, half a century old, and a prestigious, branded museum in New York City, with a gaping wide atrium asks you for a retrospective of your art. If you are the Italian Born Maurizio Cattelan, your answer is to match the nearly impossible exhibition environs of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, on Fifth Avenue, with an equally improbable hanging solution, dangle all your  artistic out put from 1989 onwards, from the central void in Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Museum building. The retrospective, All , may well have been a riggers nightmare, yet it was dazzling to see, so many art works, that have graced the covers of contemporary art magazines, in the real, precariously hanging, and out of reach in spectacular fashion. 

Early work of artist, Maurizio Cattelan, born in Padua, 1960, gained fast recognition, in the late 1990's, for his cynical approach. Articles in the French press, branded him thus, when they wrote about his debut exhibition, for his Paris Gallery, Emmanuel Perotin, where Cattelan fabricated life-scaled mannequins of vagrant people, setting them out side, on the streets of Paris where they could be mistaken for actual people with out homes. This series, of fake indigent poor of Paris, along with, a wax figure of the Late Pope John Paul II,  being struck by a meteor, are stations of the oeuvre of Cattelan that are hung from a rotund aluminum lattice, rigged to the central  occulus of the Guggenheim museum.

The oeuvre is presented, seemingly random, chandelier style, there is no immediately apparent linear chronological pattern in terms of series that Cattelan, has made. Interspersed in jumble of 130 art works, are scale wax figures of children with rope nooses around their necks, There are also smaller scaled self portraits in a similar vein, the artist himself, child sized, hanging by the neck if he were in the gallows.

 Him (2001) is an art work, consisting of a mini scaled Adolph Hitler, with a large bobble head, on his knees in a votive gesture.  Clearly, Maurizio Cattelan is an artist that is attempting to shock people with difficult and controversial figurative imagery. An nonthreatening diminutive Hitler in a pose, where the notorious Reichskanzeler is seeking forgiveness, children that look as if they have been lynched, and the Pope struck down by a loony-toons boulder, three dimensional images that look tremendously wrong. in some ways, Maurizio Cattelan: All is a unsettling Disneyland of the mind, wax figures of known people, and unknown people presented in a way to start a conversation, and or provoke controversy.

It would be hard for me to imagine a, New York Police Officer, seeing a hyper realistic portrayal of, uniformed Police men from the same department, hanging upside down,( trussed up by the feet in a posture unbecoming, of the authority they represent) and not being provoked. Like wise a practicing catholic or good christian might have some issues enjoying an art work, with a taxidermied horse lying prone on it's side with a wooden steak driven through it with a painted sign on it, INRI. 

Maurizio Cattelan's work can be said to vacillate between, the out rightly controversial, and the mildly amusing adaptation of something, someone, or some story well-known . Take for instance, a local fable of the town musicians of Bremen, a German city state where Maurizio Cattelan,  had an exhibition some years ago. According to the folk tale, a Donkey, a hound, a cat and a Hen, sang in unison, standing from biggest to smallest on the backs of one another. In Cattelan's interpretation of this tale, the town musicians of Bremen are skeletons, this fable, after Maurizio Cattelan got to it, is either dead, perverted or both. Other works where animals, are shown to feel angst, is the model of a squirrel in a pristine suburban kitchen, the moment after he has committed suicide with the aid of a revolver. The work titled Bidibidibidiboo(1996), shows squirrel blood on the linoleum suburban kitchen floor, the absurd firearm, rodent scaled, accompanies a suicide note.

An unorthodox presentation of the life's art works, so far, of a living artist, desperately working to be unorthodox. Maurizio Cattelan: All was spectacular, and the thousands of photographs taken by the spectators who visited the Guggenheim shall attest to this. The decidedly cavalier approach of letting it all hang loose from the ceiling, was counter balanced by the austerity of the rotunda it's self, no art was hung on the walls of the ramped spiral walkway, thereby accomplishing a fun house style reversal, of the visitors expectations, of where to see the art in a museum for Modern Art. The tabloid and radical sensationalist overtones that underpin much of Maurizio Cattelan's art, appeared to be one large deliberate sensationalistic morass, when strung up from a girder at the ceiling. The dizzying chaotic presentation underscored that there was one, artistic sensibility that authored these scandalous art objects. by craniv boyd.  

Carsten Höller: Experience New Museum 235 Bowery 10002 New York. by craniv boyd.

Carsten Höller: Experience New Museum 235 Bowery 10002 New York. by craniv boyd.

When a Scientist becomes an artist, working today, making current art (S)he is more likely to make a big installation that numerous people can: feel, forget, then dismantle, rather than a tiny crayon drawing on acid free paper of an impossible flying machine like the renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci would do. Case and point with the disappointing viewing experience of Carsten Höller's one person spectacle, titled Experience, at the New Museum on the Bowery. 

The New Museum has, fashioned itself as an urbane, Disney World, for like the amusement park in Orlando, Florida, it has droves of children and parents alike lining up to take a ride on a carousel, a journey through a slide, or a dip in a pool. Granted there are no Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride, nor a life scaled plastic figure of Johnny Depp nor Penelope Cruz, partly because the fun house art, is geared at brainy people. The flavor of science hall participatory experiment appeals to the intellect in a way that is not without a sense of humor. 

After queuing up for, what was, on a rainy evening, close to closing time, one hour. The public can, slide down three levels of the New Museum, through, a room for one only, metal and plastic glass tube. This person scaled artery for a building deposits the member of the public on to a soft black cushion on the floor. Facing the black landing cushion two of the museum walls, are holding florescent lights á la Dan Flavin, blinking on and off at a seizure inflicting rate. Once the public finds their legs again after the adrenaline kick of Carsten Höller's, slide, they can contemplate life sized animals with glass eyes made of solid cast dyed silicone. The artificial animaliæ look sympathetic, each has a docile expression that could look, be interpreted as a weak smile. This is especially true for the blue ape, on his or her side that faces away from what I call the seizure lights. 

Further on the same level is a fish tank, which permits viewers to lay back and literally sleep with the fishes if they so choose. There are three cut arches built into the tank, accommodating room for an adults head plus a clear air filled pillow, so visitors can look up at fish swimming above eye level. 

The street level of the museum is where the public must furnish New Museum staff with their individual, John Hancock's, on legal waivers, giving their consent that they are participating in Experience at their own risk. In ascent of this, the museum spectator gets a colored wrist band, proof for the museum workers on the upper floors that they have singed the contract for the exhibition, that they are aware of the rules of it. Past the glass wall in the lobby cafe, is the most visually striking instance within, an art exhibition that is difficult to photograph. There are, replicas of mushrooms, scaled larger than a human being. Some of these fungi are edible, furthers are poisonous, whilst others contraband. The mushrooms models are in quarter and half pieces that are re-assembled so that walking around viewers can see, three to four different types of mushroom fused in one.   

The atmosphere at New Museum, during Carsten Höller's Experience, was convivial, almost too much so when contrasted with the somber, contemplative white cubes, where current art is usually presented. by craniv boyd.  

Aleksandra Mir The Seduction of Galileo Galilei October 20, 2011- February 19, 2012 Whitney Museum of American Art 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street 10021, New York. by craniv boyd.

Aleksandra Mir The Seduction of Galileo Galilei October 20, 2011- February 19, 2012 Whitney Museum of American Art 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street 10021, New York. by craniv boyd.  

On the ground level of a classic, brutalist, Museum building by Bau Haus trained architect, Marcel Breuer, the current home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, is a modest one person exhibition. Aleksandra Mir, and her project entitled the Seduction of Galileo Galilei, is, as a museum expo, scant because it is a lone single channel video, and a series of framed collages, works on paper that are no bigger than a sheet of legal paper. People in New York, could see, that, the Seduction of Galileo Galilei, amounts to, less than one third, the size  of an ambitious Gallery Solo exhibition, in the same city.

The room, due east of elevator bank, is painted a medium crimson.  The color of the walls matches a thorough brochure, respite with information about the Artist, Aleksandra Mir, her past art works contextualised with the current fare on 75th and Madison. The red wall are where the collages of Jesus and or Mary, with Spacecraft and or man made Satellites, are hung. The art, the collages are evocative of Rocket Science, yet in their means of execution, are facile. The rag tag assortment of votive pictures with paper illustrations, of parts of jets, is inelegant surrealist collage, made in 2009, rather than 1929, plain and simple. 

The video component of Aleksandra Mir's show at the Whitney, is displayed in an impeccable faultless manor that, should be the new international standard for displaying current video art, if, it is not already. One wall projection that fills the whole wall: floor to ceiling, wall to wall, total video surface. An uncomfortable bench is positioned in front of this display, a designed bench, that reminds you, are a guest at the Whitney looking at contemporary art, and not a local multiplex cinema. The scene projected on the wall as screen, is a bland one with a slight twist. People, with no true, visible distinguishing attributes in, an industrial lot out of doors in Canada, a place not dissimilar to anyplace in middle America, doing some kind of physical menial labour.  These people are not building a house, so what, are they doing stacking all of these used car tires? The casual filming of these "nobodies" moving stuff around, out of doors to no obvious immediate end is antithetical to all things theatrical or entertaining. However unstructured in appearance  Mir's video has initially, it does bear the look of video art.  The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, is an art work that the late, Gordon Matta Clark, could have potentially done, due to the fact that like many of his short films, it involves people working creatively with commonplace objects. People who say nothing to the camera, about what, and most importantly why, the cutting of a Office, or the stacking of tiers. The lack of explanation from performers, or participants in the documentation, serves to  dispel any confusion that this "art work" could be viewed as documentary film, although it is a documentation of sorts. The deliberate, non entertaining affect, of the Seduction of Galileo Galilei leaves no doubt, that visitors Whitney Museum  are watching an art reality, and not reality television. by craniv boyd. 

Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson 15. Oktober -17. Dezember 2011 Kuckei+Kuckei Linienstraße 158 10115 Berlin, DE.by craniv boyd.

Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson 15. Oktober -17. Dezember 2011 Kuckei+Kuckei  with Birgir Andrésson, Dieter Roth, Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir, Haraldur Jónsson, Hlynur Hallsson, Hreinn Freðfinnsson, Jóna Hlíf Halldórsdóttir, Jón Laxdal Halldórsson, Karin Sander, Karlotta Blöndal, Knut Eckstein, Kristján Guðmundsson, Lawrence Weiner, Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, Margarét Blöndal, Roni Horn, Sigurður Guðmundsson, Unnar Örn Auðarson. Linienstraße 158 10115 Berlin, DE.by craniv boyd. 

For a taste of the cold north of Iceland, in Berlin center city,Text, an exhibition curated by Icelandic artist, Hlynur Hallsson, provided the goods. Art by artists with some connexion to Iceland, either through citizenship or professional affiliation, was put on view in an intimate ground floor gallery space on Linien street. 

Hlynur Hallsson, curated an exhibition, and with his Text, as with many times when artists curate an exposition of art, they seldom forget to exclude themselves from the show. Lawrence Weiner, the American painter who switched early on in his art career to the written word, painted on a wall, is here. the late Birgir Andrésson is also represented with a trypthic of, serigraphs, that are descriptive prose paragraph as portraiture. 

Icelandic artist Haraldur Jónsson, has an artwork made from vulcanized rubber gloves used in fish processing plants, hanging on a nail with white words written on them. Adjectives and a word soup, cover the functional gloving, that would normally guard working hands, from aquatic entrails. His art is evocative of daydreaming or woolgathering, associated with tedious, seasonal work. Haraldur Jónsson, is perhaps a member of one of the last generations of Icelander, who as teenagers, worked in the fish factories, because the fish were still close off the shore line.  

Quirky presentations of type written text on blue paper, stained with oil, hung up with pink tape are, Margarét Blöndal's contribution, and all-tough many artists working today, and self describing themselves as contemporary artists work with the written word, printed on an A4 sheet of paper, in short, on a text piece, Margarét Blöndal, has art that is mysteriously Icelandic, in the additive combination, of oil+paper+pink,tape that equals strange. The anti retinal or work under the influence of fluxus, is somehow subverted by a minor attention to materials.

Like Birgir Andrésson , and Kristján Guðmundsson , Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, are additional artists participating in a showing of contemporary art in a smaller gallery, who are alumni of the Venice Biennial. Artist who have all represented their nation at the national pavilion, in Venice Italy. Iceland, with its position as a small nation, makes the likelihood of when a survey exhibition, of selected current art occurs, that participating artist would also be, artists who, were at the Venice biennial. Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson have a Text artwork, originally displayed in Istanbul, titled ...ITNARAGON... of 2003, that spells the name of a prominent Turkish bank backwards with the small two letter word "NO" in front of it. The ephemeral nature of high risk venture capital and investment banking is underscored in the banner or large letter-forms, by Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, that are comprised of post it notes placed directly on the edifice of Kuckei + Kuckei, out of doors. The post it stationary, perhaps much used in corporate office work, for minor decisions, and endless to do lists, bespeak shaky foundations in the finance sector, and personal accountability, of the investment banking personnel. The adroit social commentary of Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson , from the year of 2003, is now more poignant in light of the tremors, in the Global economy in recent years and Bankruptcy of the Nation of Iceland, in 2008.

 

The weakest art, and therefore, the most visually unpleasant, in the exhibition of text based art, is the work of German artist Karin Sander. A hodgepodge scatter or random hanging of framed drawings, that looked like automatic writing authored by a lazy surrealist armed with a set of Swahili, Sanskrit and Hebrew dictionaries. Words in an ad hock, loose associative jumble in a shaky penmanship. Karin Sander's contribution was an unfortunate selection, because it is a bad art work that offers little in the way of inspiration. One thing that could have helped Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson, would have been, had he left the wall where she showed her work blank. For a blank wall might have loosened up the at times, visually cramped gallery space on Linien street. by craniv boyd. 

PEREDVIZJINIKI 29 september 2011- 22 januari 2012 Nationalmuseum Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2, 111 48 Stockholm, SE. by craniv boyd.

PEREDVIZJINIKI 29 september 2011- 22 januari 2012 Nationalmuseum Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2, 111 48 Stockholm, SE. by craniv boyd. 

On a posh and tidy street that faces the water, Södra Blasieholmshamnen, stands the national Museum of Stockholm. On the top level, within, for the moment, is a spectacular exhibition of paintings from Russia. Peredvizjniki, is the title and it takes it's name from a Russian realist movement, realism that was contemporaneous with French impressionism. the realist painters placed their emphasis on sympathetic portrayals of so called little people, farmers, school children or barge haulers, working poor and impoverished people. All of the work on view in Stockholm's National Museum is there in lieu of, loan agreement with prominent state Museums in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Peredvizjniki, offers a unique viewing experience of impressive oil paintings, that excel in showing the drama of everyday living in Tsarist Russia. 

The exhibition occupies two fifths of the old master painting galleries at Nationalmuseum. the works are organized in categories relevant to the subject matter, and content of what they portray, land scape of Lake Baikal, or a Siberian winter are in On room, Paintings of Leo Tolstoy, by Ilja Repin, bare foot in the woods are in the same room, as Tolstoy at work in his writing study, portraits of debauched aristocracy in their Tsarist finery and lap dog as accessory are also in the portraiture section. History paintings of a camp of jovial warlords writing some provocative letters to a Turkish Sultan, are grouped with an Equestrian Portrait of a warrior, at the crossroads.   

On the whole, the realist paintings of the, Peredvizjiniki, group are stunning both in their technical finesse, but also for the exotic vista, and clearly alternate vista of culture that they offer. A Tsarina taking a tour of a convent, before her immanent confinement in that institution. A face on portrait of a bearded farmer, where each ragged whisker of his burly beard is crisp, looking like they were painted on with a single haired brush. 

Notable are tiny moments, happening at a local courthouse or the first day of school. They are micro-dramas, that clearly evoke, the anxiety of childhood. For instance Nikolaj Bogdanov-Belskij, with his in the school door,of 1897, a peasant child, dressed in rags, looks, hesitating at the threshold of the class room where he is certain to embark on the journey of learning how to read. Anglo-Russian Painter, Emily Shanks, has a stunning painting of a girl's first day at school. The timid new arrival, peers bashfully at a grouping of three girls, who appear more confident, skeptical and aggressive towards the new arrival. There is considerable emotive power, within this small scaled depiction of a moment, by Emily Shanks. The painting is of a moment short in duration for the girls involved, yet nevertheless, one instance that left a lasting impression. Shanks expresses the body posture of the new arrival, with her foil, in triplicate of established classmates, so effectively that the situation, that of, newbie in school, is plain to see.

One hopes for exposure of this wonderful exhibit of underrepresented, yet accomplished realism, with humane representations, to a North American public. These works, by Peredvizjiniki, were unfortunately, co-opted as heritage pieces, or roots, for the movement of Soviet state supported realism that verges, for many towards propagandised kitsch. What viewers can gather from Peredvizjniki, at Nationalmuseum, in Stockholm, is a wealth of cultural exchange, via paintings, with a not too distant neighbor. by craniv boyd.        

Moment - Ynglingagatan 1: Moderna Museet Stockholm 25 november 2011, 22 januari 2012. Exercisplan 4, 111 49, Stockholm SE. by craniv boyd.

Moment - Ynglingagatan 1:  Anders Edström, Ann-Sofie Back,Anna Kindgren, Bella Rune, Bill Wurtz, Bjarne Melgaard, Bo Melin, Carina Gunnars, Carsten Höller, Cary S. Leibowitz, Charlotte Enström, Chris Burden, Christine Ödlund, D. Gonzalez-Foerster, Edward Ruscha, Elin Wikström, Erla S. Haraldsdóttir, Glenn Sorensen, Gunilla Klingberg, Hardy Strid, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Ingrid Eriksson, Jane & Louise Wilson, Jeffrey Vallance, Jeremy Deller, Jessica Diamond, Jim Isermann, Joachim Koester, Johan Zetterquist, Johanna Billing, Karen Kilimnik, Karin Johnson, Karl Holmqvist, Katarina Andersson, Larry Clark,Lauren Szold, Lily van der Stokker, M/M / atelier graphique, Maria Lindberg, Markus Degerman, Matts Leiderstam, Ola Åstrand, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Peter Geschwind, Peter Land, Peter Saul, Peter Wahlbeck, Philippe Parreno, Pierre Huyghe, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Hawkins, Sister Corita, Sture Johanneson, Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov
Takashi Murakami, Tom Friedman, Tom Marioni, Ulla Wiggen, Vincent Fecteau  Moderna Museet Stockholm: 25 november 2011, 22 januari 2012. Exercisplan 4, 111 49, Stockholm SE. by craniv boyd.

On plan tvo, a lower lever of the prestigious Moderna Museet, Sweden's Museum of Modern art on Skeppholmen island, is an exhibition, currently on view, of contemporary Swedish art of the mid to late 1990-s vintage. Moment - Ynglingagatan 1, is a retrospective project of a both artist initiated, and led, space that was on, Ynglingagatan 1, one street of many in the capital of Scandinavia. 

The exhibition features small scaled multiple editions work, from known and celebrated American artist Ed Ruscha, the German artist, Carsten Höller, is another notable participant, with an installed enclave, truly morbid, with dismembered children's toys, scattered on a flood painted a rich, or deep flamingo pink. 

The general exhibition design rubric, is one that parallels, an art fair scenario. Most visually present, are enclaves which resemble, individual Gallery booths, at art fairs: characteristic for their, mid scaled modular partitions: where current art, recently made, is placed in the white -half or three quarter- cube.  Beyond the cubicle compartments are the larger, actual walls, of the plan tvo room. The real museum walls as they are in, Moment - Ynglingagatan 1 ,  these walls, are adorned with, larger wall paintings, like one made with black paint, of a diagram showing the steps of "money having sex". 

The vast majority of the works are cerebral. Much of these thought heavy art has serious overtones of irony. A large and reflective plastic shining set of letters, announces: www.BMW.com. It is an artwork,  by, Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov , could be read as an ready made in the Duchampian cannon or a clearly a veiled critique of automotive consumerism. One possible knee-jerk reaction could be, "BMW motors sponsored this exhibition, you can't be serious." It is an art work that makes a hard effort not to look like art.

The culture of global consumption, and its representations, are issues, addressed by the installation of Swedish artist Bo Melin. his, Blue lagoon, is a small illuminated blue  pool, looking closely, one reads brand name Banana companies like Dole or Chiquita on the brown cardboard boxes beneath the glowing pool. The boxes are used as bricks, or found materials, to build the idyllic blue pool. The water is held in place by a translucent plastic sheeting, the sheeting half obscures the quizzical building blocks for this ring-shaped pool. As such, a weakness, of the works of Melin or Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov is that that require of the viewer: familiarity with either Marcel Duchamp, or the Pope of Pop artists Andy Warhol, to make themselves, more fully understood as art. The art works are in short, made by artists who profited from an art-school education, and therefor made artwork, in contrast to high modernism.  

A further proponent of art in dire need of consideration, and speculative contemplation, for its appreciation is the wall painting and installation of   Gunilla Klingberg, where the Seven Eleven logo and identity is warped into a whirlwind and painted true to colors on two walls of a corner. For those that know Stockholm or Copenhagen Seven Eleven, is a familiar sight, regardless if you are in Gamlastan or Norrebro. Klingberg compounds the wall painting with an equally strange and mysterious mirrored orb, resting on the floor. The preceiver of her art, can observe themselves, as a skewed being, caught together within the mysterious artwork. A strange neighbor to altered Convenience store emblem, housed in the reflective surface of the weird ball. The mystery and the sources of commonplace fast-food-franchise with the act of seeing, is brilliant, in post pop art method,   Gunilla Klingberg, illustrates that viewer-ship are part of a swirling consumer culture. 

In the red paint on white wall, painting: the future is so bright that you have to wear shades, by Swedish artist, Charlotte Enström, contour drawings of women from fashion advertisements, are layered atop of one another. It is a wall painting that is difficult to read immediately because, of the transparent, outlined, see-through women, that blur, blending into each other. The women are all scaled at approximately two times larger than life scale, making for a big totem of fashionable ladies. Or, the multitude of three quarter women become a wall, a veritable legion of stylishness.

Beautiful Landscape by the Icelandic artist  Erla S. Haraldsdóttir, is a series of four photographs, mounted on aluminum on the same museum wall, as Charlotte Enström's painting. A stunning waterfall, with black lava stones, is co populated by a toad, and a set of cigarette stubs. the highlands of central Iceland are the Launch site for a Space craft. Bald Eagles, not native to Iceland, fly in kitschy harmony with falling glacial water. The placement of all of these odd-ball characters: like a child skipping, with angel wings, for instance, are all done seamlessly. Nevertheless, these placements, of foreign bodies, in the bucolic environs of the arctic are willfully grating. Mrs. Haraldsdóttir's images, frustrate the conventional sense of what makes landscape, or rather  representations of landscapes, by artists, beautiful. The tongue in cheek arrangement of, non sequiturs of pollution, space exploration, spiritual children, or foreign amphibians makes for an artistic statement that is unreadable, and beyond the analytical irony that is the driving force of so much of the art work in Moment - Ynglingagatan 1, at Moderna Museet. 

Moment - Ynglingagatan 1 is a must see exhibition because it explores and makes apparent, what happens when artists, invite their, obscure, yet talented contemporaries living abroad, in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, or Tokyo to present, their work, in the late 1990's of Stockholm. The capital which was, at that time more exclusively supportive of local heroes. The unknown talent, exhibiting in the  small artist run, and artist funded space, later becomes Super stars at the renowned Gagosian Gallery, like the case of Takashi Murakami, who is also participating in the exhibition. This only as further proof that artists, and their proclivities, are one step ahead, and true leaders of which ever art world, one desires to name.  by craniv boyd.