Henrik Strömberg

About

In the pictures of Henrik Strömberg one encounters the world, remote, removed, almost as if disappeared. Places become difficult to locate, plunged into darkness, dawn, dusk; wastelands, half empty rooms; left-overs, left-behinds. Slight traces of what one knows, emmerge from a tissue of light, colour, plane and space; deserted: the individual does not occur. The indiviual is the spectator.

Decoding these pictures is not simple. Although they are resonating with suggestion and anticipation, the enigmatic moment always remains, disallowing you to disengage. Once you begin to immerse yourself, you become pulled over to the other, the inner side, beyond the effigy. One is on one’s own. The world stands still. Time stands still.

The quality of Henrik Strömberg’s work constitutes itself in the austere composition, from which results in this certain inward-looking nature, a deep and universal self-reflection. His view penetrates the invisible, seizes it, and gives it a shape. A connection is created between the inside and the outside, the true essence of things and the mere sense of things. This becomes obvious in the Forest Series in particular.
Single trees or groups of trees emerge from the one and the same of the forest, from the darkness, plunged into wisps of light. The decided and linger- ing gaze of the photographer reveals the singularity of the tree, makes it an individual, and therefore all trees. This gaze into the forest reveals its soul, and ultimately the soul of every thing, every place.

In Henrik Strömberg’s world, such places can appear anywhere, anytime. There is no map for them. Only the willingness, the translucence of the momentum in which a window, a door opens to the other side. Once having arrived there, it is not the time of directly assessing, of merely depicting the things, it is a time of unprejudiced observation, of marveling, ultimately of recognizing oneself within the things, recognizing oneself being part of everything.

Henrik Strömberg is a photographer, who does not mystify. No bluffs, no sensations. He neither paints us a picture of the romantic, picturesque idea of nature or civilisation, but a picture of the sublime, the unique, which can be found within things. He is a photographer, who photographs nothing, and everything.

Text by Fjodor Donderer

News

HENRIK STRÖMBERG | Bygones be bygones or: What’s hidden in the snow, will come to light by the thaw | Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin

29 Apr, 2023
Henrik Strömberg will present an immersive installation with video, light, and sound work at Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

HENRIK STRÖMBERG | Limbs, Strata, and Edible Seeds | K.P. Gallery Art Center, Seoul

29 Sep, 2022
Strömberg works with the ideas of metamorphosis, ephemerality, time, nature, traces of human existence and the paradigms of modern society.

HENRIK STRÖMBERG | Finissage and Poetry | with Jens Soneryd

29 Jun, 2022
We would be happy to welcome you to the finissage of the exhibition object amnesic: a compost manifesto on Saturday, July 2nd with a poetry reading by Jens Soneryd

HENRIK STRÖMBERG | Vergoldet / Doré | Schloss Biesdorf, Berlin

9 Jun, 2022
VERGOLDET investigates the use of gold as a (colour) material, its fusions and reinterpretations and looks with artistic positions at and behind the gilded surfaces and objects, which are no longer necessarily about the representation of eternity and wealth.

Work

Vertical Matter

Parts from Places

The series Parts from places, 2011, were made from found fragmented topographic maps and photographic negatives.
By piecing together the different parts of the maps approximate locations were unveiled and possible to locate. Henrik Strömberg went on several walks to these locations making photographic record of the journeys in and around the specific places. Rather than presenting a photographic documentation of the journeys and places, the resulting large format negatives were cut up and collaged together with the different fragments of the maps to again obscure their origin and function. The idea of the map and the photograph, as exact mediums to describe the outside world, transforms into camouflage of their own form.

Statues

CV

Education

FAMU, Academy of Performing Arts, Prague – MA Photography, 1999

Camberwell College of Art, London Institute – BA Fine Art, 1997

Collections

Fondazione Morra, Naples, Italy

Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich, Germany

Ann Wolff Foundation, Sweden

Christine Symchych Collection, USA

Kultur Hässleholm, Sweden

Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus, Schloss Plüschow, Germany

Region Skane, Sweden

La Luxembourgeoise SA, Luxemburg

Awards, Grants and Residencies

Fondazione Morra, Residency, Naples, Italy 2019

AArtist in Residency, The Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, Germany 2017

Art Prize of the Ann Wolff Foundation, Sweden 2017

Berlin Senat Research Grant for project Statues, Germany 2016

Sitterwerk Foundation, Residency, St. Gallen, Switzerland 2010

Tree Project, Award from Save The Children Foundation, London, UK

Grant for project Source, Konstnärsnämnden, Sweden 2007

Konstnärsnämnden, “Source”, Project Grant, Malmö, Sweden 2007

Cité Internationale des Arts, Residency, Paris, France 2007

Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus, Residency, Schloss Plüschow, Germany 2006

Publications (Selection)

Texte zur Kunst, “bildstrecke”, sketches for the compost, 2019

Das Treffen dreier Punkte, Interiors to Being, Berlin, 2019

DOC! Photo Magazine – selected works in reference to Man Ray 2018

VERK. Magazine – feature with text by Linda Bergman 2018

Artipoeus, podcast by Susie Kahlich – “echoes in dust” 2017

Object Amnesic, The Compost, artist “fanzine”, together with writer Jens Soneryd 2016

Mashti, monograph, published by Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin 2016

39 Null Magazine, feature / text by Felix Fiedler, Spring issue, 2016

Blind Spot Magazine, 20 year anniversary issue, 2014

LOFT Bookazine, feature / text by Saskia Neuman, 2013

Source, Fanzine, design by Adi Ehrat, 2007

Source, Artist Book, 2007

Einladung, catalogue, published by Schloss Plüschow, 2006

7 Scenes, catalogue, 2003

Places To Go People To See, book, Ed. Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2001

Solo Exhibitions

Refraction of lightness, Palazzo Spinelli Tarsia, Fondazione Morra, Napoli, Italy 2019

Vertical Matter, Dorothée Nilsson Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2019

Forward multiplications, Ann Wolff prize presentation, Visby, Sweden 2018

Echoes in dust, Åplus, Berlin, Germany 2017

The Compost, The Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, Germany 2017

The door, LOGE, Berlin, Germany 2016

Unseen Art Fair, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2016

Times New Roman, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 2016

Object Amnesic, The Ephemeral Collection, Salonistes, Venice, Italy 2016

Mashti, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2016

To the letter, Der Würfel, Berlin, Germany 2015

Quarter of a kind, Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin, Germany 2015

Second life – first place, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin, Germany 2012

Komplexraum #1, (with Ivan Seal) – General Public, Berlin, Germany 2012

Vanishing, Galerie SAKS, Geneva, Switzerland 2011

Hässleholms Konsthall, Sweden 2010

Cirkulations Centralen, Malmö, Sweden 2010

o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst (with Barbara Davi), Lucern, Switzerland 2009

Hotel Europa (with Jonas Raam), Galerie Visite Ma Tente, Berlin, Germany 2007

Wartesaal, Perla Mode, Zürich, Switzerland 2007

Galerie Rose-Marie, Malmö, Sweden 2007

Source, Galerie 5213, Berlin, Germany 2007

Remains, Galerie 5213 Berlin, Germany 2005

Mellantider, Installation at Kirseberg Church, Malmö, Sweden 2004

7 Scenes, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, Sweden 2003

Group Exhibitions (Selection)

Far away so close, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, Germany 2020

Changwon Sculpture Biennale, Seoul, South Korea 2020

Morph – isolation of (portable) pressure – DAEGU Photo Biennale in Berlin, Germany 2019

Vertikalwinkel, Schau Fenster, Berlin, Germany 2018

Symbopoeisis (with Diether Roth and Nam June Paik, Curated by fontaine B. and Jens Soneryd), Galerie Papillon, Paris, France 2018

Thirdness, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany 2017

AIPAD Photography Show, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, NYC, USA 2017

Market Art Fair, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 2017

Unseen Photo Fair, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2016

Perceptions, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2016

Kollision – Im Labyrinth der unheimlichen Zufälle, Bethanien Haus, Berlin, Germany 2016

AIPAD New York, Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, US 2016

Art Brussels, Neumeister Bar-Am, Belgium 2016

Transient Material, HAUS AM LÜTZOWPLATZ, Berlin, Germany 2015

6&6 ES 16 Off Space, Zürich, Switzerland

Drama, Salon 1, Berlin, Germany

Frames, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland

Bodybuilding, Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin, Germany

SUER GAZ, Zagreus Project, Berlin, Germany

Summershow at Griffins, Uferhalle, Berlin, Germany

L’Age d’Or, General Public Berlin, Germany

DAWN OF THE HERMETICS, Bar Babette, Berlin, Germany

JAHRESGABEN, Lage Egal, Berlin, Germany

17 STEPS DOWN, 8 FLIGHTS UP, St Gallen, Switzerland

Fotografi i Fokus, Malmö Photography Biennal, K3, Malmö, Sweden

Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus, Schloss Plüschow, Germany

Wassup, Fotogalerie Wien, Austria

Yoshiki Hishinuma, Concept Tokyo, Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan

Das Kabinett der fiktiven Realitäten, Galerie Visite Ma Tente, Berlin, Germany

Placements, Galerie 5213 Berlin, Germany

Konst i Hessle, Hässleholms Konsthall, Sweden

Newsletter

Dorothée Nilsson Gallery

Artists

Potsdamer Strasse 65
D-10785 Berlin

Tel: +49 170 5470707
E-Mail: gallery@dorotheenilsson.com

Opening Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday
12 – 18 h and by appointment

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