Annika Ström (born 9 November 1964) is a Swedish artist, living and working in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Ström works mainly with

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, text, films (

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

) and sound. Her work addresses subjective states of crisis and insecurity in songs, videos and text pieces displaying self-reflective phrases like "''Excuse me I am sorry'', ''Everything in this show can be used against me'', ''I am a better artist than I deserve''". In her films Ström draws upon details of everyday life and seemingly insignificant experiences usually accompanied by her own low-fi synth-pop soundtracks. She often works with members of her family. Her films explore the subjects of failure, loss and disappearance. Ström's text works consist of phrases, normally no more than a few words, transcribed onto sheets of paper or, onto a wall. Her videos, songs and text works are structured around the poetic transfiguration of the ordinary. Her work has been featured in many international exhibitions such as

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

, Whitsable Biennale.

Studies in Copenhagen

Ström studied at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts () has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Cope ...

Copenhagen between 1991 and 1997. During her second year, 1993, she moved to Berlin and commuted to school. She remained in Berlin until she moved to the UK in 2005.

First performance work

Ström's first performance took place in 1995 with ''Anna Ström & Annika Ström'' at the Rupert Goldsworthy gallery space in Prenzlauerberg in Berlin. Her mother, Anna, was invited to work in the gallery, making portraits of her daughter over three days, which her mother then sold. Anna had not made a drawing for 43 years. Since the appearance of Anna Ström in her very first public work, Anna Ström has appeared in many of her films. In ''Collector'' Anna shows her collection of Annika's early art school nude studies, as if they were old masterpieces. In 2008 Anna Ström developed severe

Alzheimers Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term memory, remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can incl ...

which Ström depicted in ''I can hardly recognize myself '', and the super8 films; ''Crystal Brain'' and ''Sunshine Head''.

Film and soundtrack

In 1995 Ström did her first long-form video, ''Windowpillow- a Berlin habit '', about the East Berliner practice of leaning out of their windows, while resting their arms on pillows. The work included both film and pillows and was first shown at Saga Basement, an artist's run space. Having just graduated, this film contributed to her having her first solo show at Casey Kaplan gallery in New York 1997. From 1995 Ström began to do her own film soundtracks. Using only a simple keyboard she scored for, ''Summer 96, The Artist Live, The Artist musical, Ten New Love Songs'', ''Six Songs For A Time Like This'' and ''16 Minutes''. In many of these films she acts out different characters, best known perhaps is ''Swedish Traveller'' (3 min 95) and performing the art songs in ''Artist Musical'' (13 min 96). Ström has made over 35 films. In 2013 she directed the short film “The Swede” featuring

Gunnel Lindblom Gunnel Märtha Ingegärd Lindblom (18 December 1931 – 24 January 2021) was a Swedish film actress and director. Career As an actress, Lindblom was particularly associated with the work of Ingmar Bergman, though in 1965 she performed the l ...

and Carina Westling.

Performing the soundtrack

With these films Ström began to perform her soundtracks live and as the songs were short so were the concerts, and many missed the concerts, this resulted in the film ''The Missed Concert'' . ''The Missed Concert'' is part of what Ström calls her “Absent Films” including, ''After Film Trailer'' and ''Been in Video'', exploring the subjects of failure and disappearance. She has published three

vinyl records A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

relating to the soundtrack to the films ''Summer96'', ''The Artist Live'' and ''Ten New Love Songs''.

Performance work

In 2010 Ström staged a performance at the London Frieze art fair where ten identically dressed men walked around together at the fair looking embarrassed. The caused of the embarrassment was the low number of work produced by women artists that are represented at commercial art fairs. This work gained much press attention. The work was followed by a series of other performances such as "The Upset Man" 2010 and "The Inpet Five", '' 2011. Another ongoing performance is the "Seven Women Standing In The Way" where seven women in their 60s gently block the entrance of an art space, by talking, drinking and being oblivious to other visitor's attempts to enter the space.'' The performance work "Look the other Way" at Winchester Great Hall and Shanty Clash' were commissioned in 2013 by artSouth collaboration. ''Six Lovely People'' took place at Fig2 at Ica, London 2015 and ''Six Errands'' included 29 performers at The Gallery in Leicester acting out five performance work simultaneously.

Text work

Since 2000 Ström has also worked extensively with text phrases, painted on both paper and canvas, of which many are in private and public collections. In 2014 the Swedish Art Agency commissioned her to do 10 texts works for the new build extension of LUX, the Humanities Department at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

. On the roof of the building a 10 meter long text in metal it says; "men vänta nu". (Direct English translation is; "but wait now " meaning, “hold on”). The work is permanent.

Teaching

Ström held a part-time professorship at The Academy of Fine Art Oslo 2009–2010. There she created several workshops with titles such as ''Mamma or Pappa'', ''How to Change the Situation by Statistical Information! ''A workshop about the representation of women artist at public museums. The statistics were then read by Ströms father in the film, ''Ragnar Ström Reading Statistics in his Garden 2009''. In the film, Ragnar, a former history teacher is reading statistics relating to his daughter profession in a dry, accusing manner. Another workshop'' Excuse me, I have to go the rest room'', took place in public toilets around Oslo, as spaces for displaying art. "From January 2017 to May 2018 she was a senior lecturer at Academy of fine Arts in Umeå, Sweden. She had held workshops and talks at several universities in Europe, among them; Munich Academy of Fine Art, University of Arts Linz, Staffordshire University & Imperial College London.

Public collections

Her work is in international collections such as

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

, Stockholm.

Malmö Art Museum Founded in , the Malmö Art Museum is one of the leading art museums in Scandinavia. The museum building, built in , is located in the Malmö Castle complex in Malmö, Scania, in southern Sweden. The museum is governed by the City of Malmö. Th ...

Malmö. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. NBK, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin.

Wiener Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Hoff ...

, Vienna.

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...

, Belgrade. Migros Museum Zürich. Le CNAP, National Center of Visual Arts, France. CCAC, Centro de Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville. Sammlung Verbund, Vienna.

, Paris.

Göteborgs Konstmuseum Gothenburg Museum of Art () is located at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. It claims to be the third-largest art museum in Sweden by the size of its collection. Collections The museum holds the world's finest collection of late 19th-cen ...

, Göteborg, Sweden,

Trondheim Kunstmuseum The Trondheim Art Museum (, previously ''Trøndelag Kunstgalleri'') is an art museum located in Trondheim in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The museum shows temporary exhibitions of international and regional art in dialogue with works from the ...

, Trondheim, Norway.

Gallery representation

Ström has been worked with numerous commercial galleries. Solo exhibitions of her work were held at Rupert Goldsworthy, Berlin (1995, 1996); Casey Kaplan, New York (1997, 1998, 2003); Galleri Charlotte Lund, Stockholm (2002, 2005, 2010);

Gerhardsen Gerner Gerhardsen Gerner is a gallery for contemporary art located at Linienstrasse 85 in Berlin-Mitte. The gallery maintains a second space in Oslo, and is operated by gallery owners Atle Gerhardsen (*1964 in Oslo) and Nicolai Gerner-Mathisen (*1979 in O ...

, Berlin (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2012); Galleri Drantmann, Brussels (2003); Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles (2000, 2004); Lautom Gallery, Oslo (2008); Sonia Rosso, Pordenone and Turin (1999, 2010).

Monographs

*''Annika Ström'', Secession, Vienna, 1999 *''Annika Ström: Manuscript Song'', Galleria Sonia Rosso, Pordenone, 2000 *''Annika Ström: Call for a Demonstration'', Onestar press, France 2005 *''Annika Ström'', Texts by Annika Ström, Onestar press. 2007 *''Annika Ström Live!'', edited & designed by Christophe Boutin/Onestar press/Fälth&Hässler 2008 *''Men Vänta Nu'', The Public Art Agency of Sweden 2014 *''Six Errands'', The Gallery / De Montford University 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strom, Annika 1964 births Living people 20th-century Swedish women artists 21st-century Swedish women artists People from Helsingborg Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni Artists from London Swedish contemporary artists