NEVVEN is proud to present Withering Postures, the second solo show by Swedish artist Fanny Hellgren with the gallery, featuring a new body of wall based works in paper pulp and a steel mesh sculpture, furthering and enriching of new perspectives her material—based research and intimate artistic vocabulary.
Fanny Hellgren: Withering Postures
December 14, 2019 - February 16, 2020
NEVVEN, Göteborg
The few, pondered works which compose Withering Postures, deal with depth and detachment with the subtle yet existential themes underlying Fanny Hellgren’s approach to art since the beginning of her career. Materials are exhibited naked, in their frailties and strengths, and allowed to speak to the viewers unmediated, in a soft and simultaneously determined way.
The concept of rediscovery and active reevaluation of poor materials and common objects characterising the Arte Povera movement, its detachment from Minimalist and Conceptual Art’s scientific methods for a more mythical and mysterious approach to art resonate with the Swedish artist’s practice. Yet, the presence of a personal and intimate level in Fanny Hellgren’s research detaches her works from the political preoccupations of the historical art movements on which her practice is rooted, making her art distinct, timely and cogent in our contemporary. Speaking through the marks left by her own body on the raw materials and allowing the materials’ agency in an organic and intuitive process, the delicate voice of her works approaches the viewer with an openness, non—intrusiveness and quiet soberness which is rare and precious nowadays.
Rusty and brutal metal versus delicate almost dissolving paper, the force and tension of the steel bent under the body weight of the artist clashing with the withering, creasing surface of the pulp and pigments. Fanny Hellgren’s art speaks through opposites and extreme juxtapositions, it describes tensions and delicatenesses, and while it allows the viewer to explore and interpret, guides her with a strong and mature vision. Withering Postures captures Fanny Hellgren’s practice at a crucial point, it fulfils the promises of her previous series while opening the way for exciting future developments. A state of transition that reflects the one captured in her works, a moment of stillness in between ever—changing states of existence.
Text: Mattia Lullini and Alina Vergnano