Katja Tukiainen vs. Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir

Oct 1–Jan 15, 2017

Teckningsmuseet

Free admission

Teckningsmuseet in Laholm will be hosting a Nordic drawing residency in autumn 2016. The Icelandic artist Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir and Finnish artist Katja Tukiainen will live and work in Laholm during the period 12 September–2 October 2016. The result will be shown at Teckningsmuseet October 2016–15 January 2017. During the period there will be drawing workshops and open discussions about art and literature.

Sigma Björg Sigurðardóttir´s work includes drawing, painting, sculpture, animation and books. Her imagery conjures up a world of sagas and mythical beings involving colourful characters and occasionally gruesome events and tales.

Katja Tukiainen works in a wide range of contexts in the spheres of drawing, cartoons, painting, sculpture, video and installation. Her work has a political, feminist perspective along with a strong narrative element, referencing dolls and the aesthetics of girlhood.

There are currently lots of exciting developments in drawing in the Nordic countries. Drawing has become a natural choice of art form in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in particular, and cartooning, illustration, satirical drawing and art drawing are amongst the types of drawing that are flourishing. Our aim is to highlight the breadth of drawing in the Nordic countries and so we have invited in an artist from Finland and another from Iceland, both countries where drawing has a lower profile.

We will be creating studios for the artists in the museum where they will be able to work on their art and produce artwork for an exhibition to be held at the venue. Our encounter with these artists and their creative output will give us an insight into the art form in general. An open studios programme will see audiences and visitors invited in to study the creative process.

The Museum of Drawings in Laholm will have a Nordic theme in 2016 with a full year of exhibitions by contemporary Nordic artists.

Katja Tukiainen

Born in Pori, Finland in 1969, Katja Tukiainen is an acclaimed visual artist whose works have been included in international exhibitions and public collections. Already in the middle of 1990’s her drawings and paintings turn to pink scale and represented her cute but not harmless girl characters. Since then her girls have appeared not only in her paintings and drawings but also in her murals, sculptures, graphic novels and even tattooed on people’s skin. Tukiainen calls these characters her good-hearted girl army. The members of her army are cute, irreproachable, strong and determined girls who do anything she asks.

Tukiainen started her Master of Arts in Helsinki, but applied and was approved to Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy in 1994. While in Venice she was selected for the first time to participate in international group shows. Upon her return to Finland she had her first solo exhibition in 1995. Since then she has shown her works in many countries. Tukiainen has participated in artist-in-residence programs in Italy, New York and Japan. Now she is invited to have a residence period at The Museum of Drawings in Laholm, Sweden in September 2016, followed by an exhibition (together with her co-artist in residence Sigga Bjorg Sigurdardottir) at the same museum.

“In all of my drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures I have the same need. My need is to lead the audience to the world where cute and minor creatures have an opinion and the power. When I am reading daily news I cannot always believe in goodness, but in the world of my art good wins bad 6-0. People say my works are provocative and they speak out, but still they are sensitive. It is more than ok to say that.”

Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir

Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir (born in Reykjavík, Iceland 1977) is a visual artist who lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland. Sigga’s visual language is full of surreal or dark humor, fantasy and childhood nostalgia. Looking beyond such apparent qualities, it is interesting to consider the work on a more realistic level, as it reveals a penetrating analysis of human interaction and emotion. Her intriguing drawings and murals often explore the push and pull of human behaviour and relationships, the desire to both manipulate and be at one with another, as well as the subtleties of feelings such as loneliness, jealousy, love, and fear. Her method of relentless drawing often reveals human behaviour and emotion in their most primitive and wild form, and explores the sometimes quite vague boundaries between human and beast.

Sigga received a MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in 2004 and since then she has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions around the world. Solo exhibitions include Kling and Bang Gallerí (Reykjavík), Galerie Adler (Frankfurt), Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York) and Clark Galerie (Montréal) with selected group exhibitions including, Gothenburg Art Museum, The Centre For Contemporary Art (Glasgow), National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh) and Reykjavík Art Museum. Her work is in international collections including the Zabludowicz Art Trust (London), Nordiska Akvarellmuseet (Skärhamn, Sweden). Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland) and Reykjavík Art Museum.

“I like to create a situation between characters that look like people or animals but do not have to be either. They simply exist to demonstrate a situation or a state of mind”.