Led by the exhibition’s curator Dr. Klaus Ottmann, a panel on Nordic Impressions: Contemporary Art from Åland, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden discusses the wide array of artistic expressions currently on view at Scandinavia House. Select artists will be present to discuss their unique expressions in the exhibition as well as the themes that hold a special place across Nordic culture: both historic themes such as light and darkness, the coalescence of nature and folklore, women’s rights and social liberalism; and more current subjects such as climate change, sustainability, and immigration.
Artists participating in the panel include Marthe Thorshaug (Norway, The Legend of Ygg, 2014) and Anneè Olofsson (Sweden, Cold, 1999). Presented in partnership with the Armory Show’s 2018 VIP Programs, the panel will follow a guided tour of the exhibition by Dr. Klaus Ottmann for Armory VIP Members only.
**This panel was recorded.** See the full recording here:
About Klaus Ottmann
Klaus Ottmann is Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Academic Affairs at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the publisher and editor of Spring Publications. At the Phillips, he has curated the exhibitions Nordic Impressions: Art from Åland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, 1821–2018; George Condo: The Way I Think; Arlene Shechet: From Here On Now; Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color; Hiroshi Sugimoto: Conceptual Forms and Mathematical Models; Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet; and Per Kirkeby: Paintings and Sculpture; and oversaw the installation of the Phillips’s new permanent installation, a Wax Room created by Wolfgang Laib. Dr. Ottmann has curated more than 60 international exhibitions, including Jennifer Bartlett: History of the Universe. Works 1970–2011; Still Points of the Turning World: SITE Santa Fe’s Sixth International Biennial; Life, Love, and Death: The Work of James Lee Byars; Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective; and Strange Attractors: The Spectacle of Chaos. His publications include Yves Klein by Himself: His Life and Thought; The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition; and The Essential Mark Rothko.
In 2006, he translated and edited Yves Klein’s complete writings, Overcoming the Problematics of Art: The Writings of Yves Klein, and in 2010 he translated F.W.J. Schelling’s Philosophy and Religion (1804).
In 2016, Dr. Ottmann was conferred the insignia of Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. He received a M.A. in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Division of Media and Communications at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
About the Artists
Anneè Olofsson (b.1966) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. She often uses herself, as well as her parents, in her work. Her profoundly unsettling photographs and videos explore family relationships and, more generally, power relations. Surrealism, especially the photographs of Man Ray (1890-1976), has been a major influence. She has held solo exhibitions at Galleri Andersson/Sandström (Stockholm), Bohuslän Museum (Uddevalla, Sweden), Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea (Milan), Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art, Masterton, New Zealand, Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York), among others. Her work is in the collections of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington), Hirschorn Museum, (Washington), and the Smithsonian Institute (Washington).
Marthe Thorshaug (b. 1977) is an artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Hamar, Norway, where she also runs her own film production company, Nerhagen Productions. Freely crossing established genres and levels of reality, her works are unclassifiable works of fiction. Examining human and animal instincts and behavior is a reoccurring theme in her work. She has held exhibitions and screenings at The Whitechapel Gallery (London), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo), Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires), Ballroom Marfa (Texas), Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Bergamo), The City Gallery (Wellington),the Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art (Moss), Virserums konsthall (Virserum, Sweden) the Katzen Arts Center (Washington, DC), among others. She graduated from the Art Academy in Oslo in 2003.
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Left to Right: Anneè Olofsson (Sweden, Cold, 1999); Marthe Thorshaug (Norway, The Legend of Ygg, 2014); Klaus Ottmann
SAT—MARCH 9—12 PM
$5 (free for ASF Members and Students)