Karin Törnell | Lodad blick
We are pleased to present Karin Törnell's first solo exhibition at the gallery, titled "Lodad blick". The exhibition includes sculptures, wall-mounted objects, and installations hanging from the ceiling in glass, alabaster, and diabase.
Karin Törnell works primarily with sculpture in cast glass. The illusory qualities of the material, together with her way of polishing and processing the surface, can easily evoke thoughts of marble – or of resin and wax. The pieces are first sculpted in clay, then cast in wax, and finally transformed into glass.
In her artistic practice, Törnell explores the relationship between the human body and experience, and form and materiality. She immerses herself in all the details that surround her, and with a directness of expression, she creates forms that appear both familiar and alien. "I have seen this once, but forgotten!" writes Magnus Florin in an essay about the artist’s previous works. How do we relate to a particular form? What reactions, thoughts, and memories does it evoke?
In her work, different parts are combined in unexpected compositions, challenging opposites such as fragility/durability, lightness/weight, and transparency/opaqueness. The interplay between different materials and their diverse characteristics is another prominent feature of Törnell's work. Glass versus textile, glass versus iron, glass versus natural stone. The exhibition includes several objects that appear to be shaped by gravity, hanging from the ceiling like plumb lines. In dialogue with one another, the works create a totality of movement, weight, and balance.
"I try to portray fundamental experiences and sensations. The challenge is to trust the power of uncertainty, and to follow my own intuition and curiosity. The works come into existence almost by themselves. The personal unfolds and becomes, in its transformation to form, universal." – Karin Törnell
Karin Törnell (b. 1966) lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, and has also studied at California College of Arts in San Francisco. Recent solo exhibitions include "A Sounding Glance" at Galerie NeC, Paris (2021), "Vitala delar" at Galleri Glas, Stockholm (2018), and "Moments of Summaration", Galerie NeC, Paris (2014). Her work has previously been exhibited at Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (SE), Sugata Gallery, Kyoto (JP), Saatchi Gallery, London (UK), Gustavsbergs Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Mánes Gallery, Prague (CZ), and Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg (SE). Törnell has made several public commissions, most recently for the Stockholm City Station and the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. She is represented in the collections of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Smålands Museum, and Public Art Agency Sweden.
