Gunilla Falck

Gunilla Falck’s paintings are personal narratives with a warm but airy atmosphere. This stems from the relationship between the fragile and fragmentary subjects and the often energetic and forceful use of colours in abstract or semi-abstract layers, which simultaneously complement and half hide the figures.
A central aspect of her painting is a certain form of intimacy present in subjects inspired by many different influences. Firstly, her immediate surroundings and encounters with people and the experience of growing up in the countryside transposed into a modern urban context. Another part of this personal frame of reference is rooted in an intense dialogue with other artists’ work. These aspects stand for a connection to the real world and the artist’s own experience – as a seeing, feeling and knowing subject – in which, according to Gustave Courbet, lies the only source for a living art. It is this very part of realism she is drawing on, a blending of history and personal experience, not mimesis. The organic forms are often partly obscured in abstract gestures and a playful flow. The choice of colours and the subjects are always intertwined, as, e.g., in “Big Mamma Tagetes” (2008), where the artist has taken over the colours of the flower, and allows them to spread over the canvas. Often the titles emphasise the colours just as much as the figurative elements, as in “Give Me Yellow Give Me Purple Play” or ”Yellow from the Forest” (2008). In this way, the two worlds are interacting – abstraction / colour with figuration – often supplementing each other in evoking an atmosphere of intimacy. This also happens in the series “Love Series”, in which a single colour shape painted onto the otherwise white canvas accompany a fragile pencil drawing of one or more persons in everyday life.
In other works, this dialogue between figurative and abstract elements is achieved through a co-existence of several layers in the space of the painting. The colour that runs down the canvas enhances a two-dimensionality, which draws all the elements of the painting into the foreground. The space in which the main characters act is defined by the boundaries in which the subject is trapped: the objects and beings portrayed become almost schematic, while the gestures of the painter blur or break open the restraints of the sharp, almost ornamental motifs.

Text by Eva Mayy

Cv

Born 1957 in Svarteborg, lives and works in Malmö

Education:
1999, 2003 Art teacher, Malmö University
1999-2001 Interaktionsdesign MA, Malmö University
1987-92 Forum Art School , dep. painting and sculpture

Solo Shows:
2008 Connect, Galleri Rostrum, Malmo
2007 Eat That Paint, Paletten, Höör
2006 The Moments, CirkulationsCentralen, Malmo
2005 Grow, Skånes Konstförening, Malmo
2004 Flower Features, Galleri G, Lund
1998 Special Things Galleri Rostrum, Malmö
1997 Nature Kicks-Survival Tricks, Galleri Ping Pong, Malmo
1996 Cut, Traffic/Projekt Artpit, Malmo
1994 Painting, Galleri Bengt Adlers, Malmo
1993 Painting, Pumphuset, Trollhättans Art Center
1992 Painting, Forumgalleriet, Malmo

Group Exhibitions:
2009,07 Supermarket, Art Fair for artist driven show rooms, Stockholm
2009 Our Art Salon, Landskrona Konsthall
2009,08,07 Art Event Live, art action for homeless, Malmo
2008 Drawings, Hannover, Hameln, Paderborn, Germany
2008 No, no, no, there are no limits, Galleri Signal, Malmo
2008 Kilroy was here, La Coronne, Malmo
2007, 06 Copenhagen Alternative Art Fair, Copenhagen
2007 Concrete Drawings, The Garden Fair, Göteborg
2006 Artist-2-Artist, AMS 12, WG Plein, Amsterdam
2006 Box Kraftverk, Marieberg
2004 Hovdala Slott, Hovdala
2002 Artist to artist, The Fluss Group, Berlin
2002 Passagen-Linköpings Konsthall
2002 Art againts Aids, The Life Foundation, Stockholm
2001 Artist-2-Artist, Paris-Malmo
2001 Flower Power, Slottsträdgården, Malmo
2000 Summer 2000, Gallerie Leger, Malmo
2000 Shoot, video and film festival, Malmo
1999 South City Drawings, The Pine Apple Project Room, Malmo
1999 Båtsmanskasernen, Karlskrona
1998 Art Salon on the Internet, Skånes Konstförening
1996 Seen and Unseen, Galleri Glemminge, Glemmingehus
1994 The Pyramid, Galleri Mors Mössa, Göteborg
1994 P, Borgarkringlur Shoppingcenter, Rekjavijk, Iceland
1990 Forum in Talinn, Estonia
1990 Six from Forum, Hörby Museum

Environmental installations:
2008 Garden of Frida, out door mural, ca 320m2, city of Höör
1991 Wedge and Ring, out door mural, glasfiber and painting, ca 400m2, Riksbyggen Community Malmö, Collaboration with Sarmite Roske

Grants:
2008 Drawing Workshop Ars terra, Hannover, Germany
2005 Artist Work Grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee
2004 International Project Grant for Artist Exchange with South Africa from Forum Syd, Swedish Arts Grants Committee and City of Malmö
1998 August Ringnérs Travel Grant to Italy
1996 International Exchange Grant with India, Swedish Arts Grants Committee
1990, 91 Crafoordska Stiftelsen

Represented:
Statens Konstråd, Västra Götalandsregionen, Region Skåne, museums, institutional and private collections

Publication:
Kärnor, Publikation, www.rollon.net 2009