Genre-Myth-Time / Gèneres-Mite-Temps

CCA Andratx is pleased to present the solo exhibition GENRE – MYTH – TIME by Swedish artist Anette Abrahamsson. The exhibition brings together works produced in Mallorca by the artist, exploring the ways in which spaces are represented and perceived. By demonstrating how the nature of personal perception is ever shifting, Abrahamsson plays with the ideas of personal associations, cultural norms and realism.

While staying at the CCA Artist-in-Residence Program in August 2012, Abrahamsson produced a striking series of watercolour paintings, which propose a narrative approach while simultaneously creating a narrative absence, thus conveying an unspoken story. Dried plants, nuts, flowers, grass and a fan are all motifs that are reproduced in a realistic and inspiring way on the otherwise clean surface of the paper. All of these different artefacts are collected in a certain place specifically chosen by the artist without the desire of representing the fauna of the chosen place. Instead, Abrahamsson has developed a complex practice based on the juxtaposition of the objective image and the subjective perception of the viewer, thus creating a blend of detachment and engagement.

GENRE – MYTH – TIME showcases a selection of works that represent the unseen in the near surroundings. The exhibition presents a selection of paintings portraying two female artists that were also staying at the CCA Artist-in-Residence Program. Abrahamsson asked the women to pose with an object of their own choice, the only criteria being that it had to have sentimental value, verging on an object of fetish. Furthermore, the women avert their gaze from their audience as if they want to avoid exposing their secret desire. That is to say, the same desire, which we have been confronted with throughout the history of art many times before.

In contrast to the works created during her time at CCA, Abrahamsson presents a series of paintings focusing on symbolic icons and cultural artefacts through architecture in southern Sweden. Alongside, there is a series of 15 watercolour paintings of the wild Nordic flora flowers. These works, in their detailed execution, provide a contrast to the expressive and arbitrary works from Mallorca.
Last but not least, there is a painting and a sculpture of the Drachmann bench which symbolic meaning represents the essence of Danish culture and art history. Holger Drachmann was a Danish poet who was part of the movement surrounding The Skagen Painters.