Insider Editorial - From A Residency in Spain to the Power of Collaboration

TALLER TARAPACÁ MIGUEL ANADRADE VALDEZ & DIANA ORTEGA GARAGATTI SILLA DE PIE CHAIR 2020 QUILLOBORDÓN, DIABLO FUERTE OR PALO PERUANO L 32 X W 32 X H 54 CM CRAFTED BY HAND OPEN EDITION

In Catalonia Focus Foundation launched a residency for creatives, an art initiative by the Brugarol Group that runs exclusive hotels and restaurants in the region. At Malmö Konsthall more than 50 local artist took over the space in one of its most popular exhibitions in recent times. Artists Miguel Andrade Valdéz did a solo exhibition in his hometown Lima, had his home featured in T Magazine and developed the design studio Taller Tarapacá. In the Nordics, nonprofit Nordic Art Intelligence was established to support art historical scholarship and catalogue raisonné project with the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela as one of its marquee projects. Read on to find out more about what’s in the cards for 2023.

New Residency for Creatives in Spain
In June Brugarol Group launched Focus Foundation, a new art initiative in northeastern Spain. With the announced cultural activities directed by Pepe Baena Diví, Focus Foundation aims to foster cultural exchange and cross disciplinary creativity, and create opportunities for artists with diverse backgrounds and a meeting place where guests and visitors are invited to spend time in the particular landscape and community of Baix Empordà. Brugarol Group offers stays in charming historic properties, rich in cultural heritage and part of the ecology of the region, excellent farm-to-table meals and the beaches of Costa Brava nearby. Nacho Alegre, the photographer and creative director behind Apartamento Magazine, did the first shoot of the art initiative summer 2022. Look out for more information on alumni from the residency coming soon. https://www.focus-----foundation.org Press kit Focus Foundation.

Taller Tarapacá, Silla de Pie Chair by Migueal Andrade Valdez and Diana Ortega Gargatti. Photo: Nicole Bergman

Merging Contemporary Design and Pre-Columbian Inspiration

In the years since Andrade and Ortega met in 2018, the house has been transformed from a Brutalist mass into something more precise and humane. Together, they sheathed the structure’s second floor in pale pink washed terrazzo, dissolving the heavy box into a Cubist cloud. To keep from overstimulating himself, Andrade initially left most of the interiors blank, though they’re now filled with prototypes made by a design collective called Taller Tarapacá that he and Ortega founded in 2019 along with the 32-year-old industrial designer Paula Cermeño León (who helped Andrade turn his first sketches for the house into usable plans) and the 35-year-old textile designer Mozhdeh Matin. (Michael Snyder NYT T Magazine, Aug. 9, 2022)

Image of article in T Magazine with text by Michael Snyder and photo by Ivan Salinero.

Look out for the webshop of Taller Tarapacá opening 2023. Press kit.

The graphic profile by Thomas Bush for In the City Grows a Field at Malmö Konsthall.

Stronger Together in Malmö
Art and the collective forces are in focus in In the City Grows a Field – 50 Artists in Malmö at Malmö Konsthall. This fall, Malmö Konsthall opened one of its largest group exhibitions, and most popular, in later years, featuring Malmö-based artists and the city's dynamic art scene. The exhibition contains works by 50 artists from different generations in a teeming and rich presentation that reflects art's tenacity and integrity and the collective forces that create unique conditions for artists to work in Malmö. Press kit and press contact.

Furthering Art Historical Research and Catalogue Raisonnés in the Nordics
Nordic Art Intelligence is a newly established nonprofit foundation with a mission to promote the work of Nordic artists on the national and international stages through art historical research, scholarship, and the publication of digital catalogues raisonnés. Key projects include the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of paintings of Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) and the collaboration with the Torsten Andersson Foundation and its newly initiated catalogue raisonné of paintings by Swedish artist Torsten Andersson (1926-2009). Nordic Art Intelligence website.  Press release.

A museum nestling in the dunes. Photo courtesy: Falsterbo Photo Art Museum

Photo Art Museum on the Beach
Falsterbo Photo Art Museum is a private museum overlooking the dunes of the Baltic Sea that focuses on fashion and beauty with a world class collection. 

What strikes the eye is the open-mindedness with which the couple collected; the number of topics their collection embraces; and the quality of each and every print. From George Hoyningen-Huene’s historically ground-breaking photographs from the 1920s, vintage Vogue covers dating back to the 1950s or Steven Miesel’s extravagant mise-en-scène capturing Karlie Kloss in a sci-fi gown, one travels through numerous icons of the 20th century. (Clara Le Fort, Billionaire. March 22, 2022)

From A Space Pumpkin to the Sami Worldview at Wanås Konst
The major art projects in 2022 highlighted artists that drive change and material development. Rather than raise our awareness about issues of the environment and sustainability as motifs, Danish artist Peter Linde Busk and design group Numen/For Use searched for sustainable alternatives in the making of their work. Wanås Konst presented Peter Linde Busk’s first outdoor sculpture that eventually become a permanent part of its 70+ collection of installations in the landscape. In the summer of 2023, artist Carola Grahn is presented in an extensive solo exhibition. Based on the Sami worldview, she explores modern man's relationships and ideas about nature. Press information.

Portrait of the artists Sophie Tottie in her studio. Photo by Marcus Schneider

On Art and the Concepts of Freedom and Responsibility
We love to hear artist talking in depth about their work. Swedish artist Sophie Tottie opened a major exhibition at the Royal Academy, Stockholm, in the spring of 2022 and was interviewed by Mårten Arndtzén on SR.  Listen here (Swedish only.): https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/den-sista-fageln-sophie-tottie-om-konstens-ansvar-och-frihet

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