Susanne Johansson

In Another Place Then the Expected
14 April - 20 May 2018


Copyright Susanne Johansson, Furthest Out II, oil on linen, 2017. Photo Pär Fredin.
Courtesy Galleri Magnus Karlsson. 

The exhibition In Another Place Than the Expected at Uppsala Art Museum presents Susanne Johansson's recent painting and drawing. The forest, thickets, stones, moss, water and buildings are key elements in Susanne Johansson’s painting, and just as important are the cold and warm nuances of the colours. Here it is not the premises of realism that dictate the expression, but rather inherent logic of the painting and drawing. The figures that, at times, occupy a painting or a drawing are an integral part of the idea of the image as a whole. They become part of the surrounding nature. Encounters and transitions take place between the depicted and the image, between the landscape and painting, colour and realities.

The notion of time is also there, the intimate, the present as well as the past, in the images, the colour, the light, shadows and atmosphere. Time is conveyed in the figures we see, in their movements and poses, how they turn towards or away from us. The drawings and paintings include memory images, and recollections of situations. Memories that are allowed to merge into experiences of the now. It is in the sensitive encounter with the surrounding nature, perception and time that Susanne Johansson’s images emerge. 

Susanne Johansson grew up in Stråkanäs outside of Kalix, in the Northern Swedish province of Norrbotten. In the 1990’s she moved to Stockholm to study at the Royal Institute of Art and changed her last name to Simonson, after which she moved to the rural district of Tierp. She has been living in Uppsala since 2014, and has recently taken back her name Johansson, but still has her studio in Tierp.

Curator: Daniel Werkmäster, Museum Director