ISSUES

ISSUES is delighted to present the first solo exhibition with painter Ida Persson at the gallery. Carried out in her distinct style of geometric shapes in contrasting colors and evoking an abstract architecture, paintings 11, 12 and 13 in her 5th series, are presented as a triptych. Persson started making small cardboard objects reassembling machines around 2012, they were the starting point for the 1st series of paintings called Apparat. In 2020, Persson began painting the arm-like structures that characterize her 5th series of paintings called Conductors. In this series, the arms may guide, control; conduct. However, the arms may also embrace.

Ida Persson was trained at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts by painter Ann Edholm. Both artists explore human traits, the good and the bad, inherent in shapes not found in nature. While Edholm lets her abstract pictures become subjected to human conditions through their viewers, Persson’s pictures portray things such as power, control and care-taking. As Ida Persson is a recipient of the Bærtling Scholarship, a third artist is brought to the discussion. Oscillating between spatial depiction and the absolutely abstract, Ida Persson’s pictures become a stepping stone between Olle Bærtling’s total aversion to nature at one end of the pond and actual nature on the other.

The Stockholm based curator Alida Ivanov writes the exhibition text for Caretaker.

IDA PERSSON

b. 1985, lives in Ystad and works in Löderup, Sweden.

Ida graduated from Umeå Academy of fine arts with both a bachelor and master’s degree. In 2015, she won the prestigious Fredrik Roos award “for developing a personal imagery that reveals the power of relationships in society.” Caretaker is her first solo exhibition at ISSUES. Other solo shows include Numbness and Serenity at both Ystads Konstmuseum, Ystad (2023) and Varbergs konsthall, Varberg, Sweden (2022) and Docile Bodies at Erik Nordenhake, Stockholm (2017). Group exhibitions include Twilight Land at Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö (2022); Portionsavund at Konstnärshuset, Stockholm (2022); Downtown Issues at ISSUES, Stockholm (2021); Modernautställningen at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2018) and Swedish Art: Now! at Sven-Harrys konstmuseum, Stockholm (2016).

GRANTS AND AWARDS

Gunnar & Lilly Perssons art grant (2022)

Eric & Inger Olson Ekdahl’s scholarship, Ystad Art Museum (2021)

The Bærtling scholarship (2019)

Ellen Trotzig grant, Malmö Art Museum (2018)

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Jenny Lind's grant (2017)

The city of Malmö, Culture grant (2017)

Fredrik Roos Art Grant (2015)

Iaspis (2015)

Grant of Anna-Lisa Thomson (2014)

COLLECTIONS

Moderna Museet

Statens Konstråd

Ystad Konstmuseum

Region Uppsala

Uppsala Konstmuseum