New Exhibition Spotlights the Overload of Everyday Life

Maria Nordin freezes human bodies in a variety of positions, all of them ‘working overtime’. The result is a series of paintings based on a theme that may have major negative implications for humans and the planet: overconsumption and overload.

In her universe, Maria Nordin depicts this serious theme in pastel colours – associated in many people’s minds with gentleness, innocence and purity.  

A universe of pastels and contrasts

After visiting the Maria Nordin exhibition (23 November 2023 – 26 May 2024), you will probably be left with an overriding sense of ‘contrast’. Maria Nordin’s works teem with contrasts! Though at first sight we encounter a beautiful, delicate pastel-coloured universe, beneath the surface lurk many disturbing, powerful and disconcerting elements. The contrasts in Nordin’s works are precisely what lend the exhibition its unique visual expression and an emotional depth to which we can all relate, regardless of age.

In addition to the contrast between light pastel shades and the physical and mental overload of everyday life, in this series of new paintings Nordin has added a new element: fabrics. In these works she used fabrics both as light, airy backgrounds and compact, heavy ‘luggage’.

“The fabric serves as a kind of prop and can play several roles. On the one hand, it symbolises the mental and material overload of all the things that surround us; on the other hand, it serves as a kind of artificial landscape,” explains Maria Nordin.

In the work of Maria Nordin, fabrics take on several meanings. They become an image not only of the overconsumption and overproduction that are impacting our climate, but also of the overload that burdens our minds. While beautiful, Nordin’s works are a comment on the age in which we live, addressing current themes and perusing human existence in today’s world.

Life-size human bodies

Maria Nordin works in watercolour, but on a striking scale. According to Nordin, the common perception is that watercolour is generally used for small works and sketches. However, from the outset, she chose to explore the medium on the assumption that there were no limitations. Today, Nordin uses watercolour as if it were oil paint in her large-scale, highly detailed depictions of clear figures.

In fact, Maria Nordin’s watercolours are so large that they make room for life-size portrayals of the human body. The artist believes that it is easier to give viewers a physical experience when the scale relates to their own size.

“The large scale of the works can enhance the experience. I hope the viewer can get a sense of these bodies, feel the poses and movements, and perhaps feel or understand something that extends beyond language,” says Maria Nordin.

Promising, yet already highly acclaimed, the artist Maria Nordin has exhibited at countless galleries and museums in Sweden, where her watercolours and animated films have been very well received. Though watercolour has become an inextricable part of Maria Nordin’s unique language, she is far more interested in, and driven by content: how we experience the world through our bodies and how bodily experiences take shape.

The exhibition, which opens at Kunsten on 23 November, is the first presentation at a museum outside Sweden of the work of Maria Nordin.

Maria Nordin (b. 1980)

• Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.

• Graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2010.

• Represented in collections including Moderna Museet (Stockholm), the Nordic Watercolour Museum (Skärhamn, Sweden), the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the British Museum (London) and Kunsten Museum of Art (Aalborg).

Further information

Read more about the exhibition: kunsten.dk/en/nordin
Download press material

Head of Communication Lars Ulrich Hansen
Telph. +4531994105
luh@kunsten.dk

^{Maria Nordin, Cascade, 2023. Watercolour on paper, 120 x 96,5 cm. Photo: Galleri Magnus Karlsson}