NEVVEN is proud to present all dreams, all stone, a group show featuring new works by Warsaw based Belarusian artist Lera Dubitskaya, Italian artist Letizia Lucchetti, Swedish artist Emelie Sandström, and two works from the archive of legendary Japanese photographer Toshio Shibata.

all dreams, all stone
Artists: Lera Dubitskaya, Letizia Lucchetti, Emelie Sandström, Toshio Shibata
June 8 - September 3, 2023
NEVVEN, Göteborg

NEVVEN is proud to present all dreams, all stone, a group show featuring new works by Warsaw based Belarusian artist Lera Dubitskaya, Italian artist Letizia Lucchetti, Swedish artist Emelie Sandström, and two works from the archive of legendary Japanese photographer Toshio Shibata. With Dubitskaya, Lucchetti and Shibata at their first ever exhibition in Sweden, and inspired by a poem by American poet Eileen Myles (Dream, 2013), the show aims to present four extremely distant practices, mediums, artists and formats. Grounded on stark juxtapositions, both physical and metaphysical, all dreams, all stone invites the viewer to delve into the eerie and captivating, funny and serious, colourful and austere works these four artists present us with.

Dream

Close to the
door in
my dream the
small signs

I saw a brown
sign with wisdom
on it
I saw a brown
one leaning
with wisdom
on it

fringe of a mirror
my mother
leaning over a pond
cupping water

leaning against
the moulding
cardboard or
wood which materials do you

does your wisdom prefer

which a-
partment in a summer
with someone
I felt brave to
have touched
her love the screen
door and the dogs
and the cats always
getting out. That
was the fear
two signs
fading but recalling
they had faded like words
fade in stone because
of the rain and the days
and waking and the dream
is leaving with every
step leaning over the meat
because I do not want
you to have died in vain
kissing the turkey and
the neck of my dog
all animals am I.
all dreams, all stone
all message am I.

Eileen Myles

—
Lera Dubitskaya’s (b.1996, Minsk) works on paper are dreamlike and otherworldly. They depict eerie landscapes where chimerical flowers and plants are vigorously growing, and mythical creatures of the kind one might only find in a fairy-tale. Working exclusively on incredibly small formats, dedication to detail and precision is crucial, and the attentively composed lines and hues deliver a unique visual reminiscent of medieval tapestries and miniatures. This fantasy world seems as distant and alien, as it is inviting and luring for its viewers to carefully step in and indulge in Dubitskaya’s imagination. Dubitskaya studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and she has been exhibited at Pangée (Montreal, 2023), Modern Art (London, 2023), The Curators Room (Amsterdam, 2023), Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, 2022), Hoffmann + Maler + Wallenberg (Nice, 2022), and LETO (Warsaw, 2021) among others. Dubitskaya lives and works in Warsaw, Poland.

Letizia Lucchetti’s (b.1999, Ancona) paintings are naïve and witty at once. They initially attract with their simple and often ingenuous look, and then fascinate with the imaginary and personal narratives the young Italian artist masterfully develops. The exaggerated smiles of her characters, the pastel colours, the anthropomorphic animals and symbolic use of inanimate objects (which reminds of a wild drift of OOO) at a further look makes their friendly and simple countenance rapidly become eerie, mysterious or tragically humorous. Lucchetti holds a BA in Painting (2022) from the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna and is currently studying for her Master’s degree there. She was a recipient of the Art Up Opentour Award in 2022 and has been exhibited at Fondazione Zucchelli (Bologna, 2023), Arte Fiera (Bologna, 2023), ArtVerona (Verona, 2022), and LABS Contemporary Art (Bologna, 2022) among others. Lucchetti lives and works in Bologna, Italy.

Emelie Sandström’s (b.1986, Stockholm) practice stems from a research into traditional techniques and materials, and a fascination in the timeless way in which religion and mysticism use enchantment and fear to construct faith and induce social stability. Producing sculptures with hard materials like wood, bronze, and stained glass, she brings these considerations from the social to the psychological, and takes advantage of these structures to tell a very different story, a story where pain is turned into beauty and fear into safety, which is at the source, and often reenacted, by the enchanting objects she creates. Sandström holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy (2015) and has been exhibited at NEVVEN (Gothenburg, 2022 and 2019), Salgshallen (Oslo, 2022), Galleri Pina (Vienna, 2018), Galerie A.M.180 (Prague, 2018), Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö, 2017), Ystads Konstmuseum (Ystad, 2017), Galleri Riis (Stockholm, 2015), and Galleri Nicolai Wallner (Copenhagen, 2015). Sandström lives and works in Malmö, Sweden.

Toshio Shibata (b. 1949, Tokyo) has been a prominent figure in Japanese photography since the 70’s, with a career spanning over 50 years, and solo exhibitions with countless major international museums and galleries. Fascinated by the interweaving between natural forces and man-made structures, Shibata shifts proportions, scale and horizon in his images to transform engineering projects on mountain cliffs, dams and roads in repetitive geometric patterns and abstract colour fields, woods, hills and rivers in rich textures. Shibata’s work is at the convergence between landscape photography and abstraction, with an instantly recognisable vision, mysterious poetry and elegance. Shibata has had solo shows at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Centre National de Photographie in Paris, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago among others; his work is represented in numerous museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and Centre national de la Photographie in Paris to name a few. Shibata lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.