Nordic Art Agency Podcast

Sara Berman describes her paintings as ‘a dialogue between painting and textiles'  and joins Juliet on the podcast to breakdown her works and the 'uncomfortable nooks of the female bodily experience' found in her self portraits.

Originally from London, Sara Berman studied at St. Martins School of Art & Design and later took a Masters of Fine Art at Slade School of Art. Her work can be found in notable international collections, and she has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibition, currently represented by Vielmetter in Los Angeles.

Sara describes her paintings as ‘a dialogue between painting and textiles.’
With a background both in fashion and art, Sara brilliantly creates a game of  materiality in her large scale compositions in oil on canvas.

The conversation is very much based around the female experience and touches on every aspect of how Sara personally operates in the world and how this is represented in her work.  Her experiences are reflected through the character of the Trickster Whore and the use of the Harlequin as a starting point for all her paintings.

You can follow Sara Berman on Instagram and on her website

Delighted to share news of our ongoing gallery Art Auction.

There are a few days left to bid on artworks in Nordic Art Agency Art Auction.  Many of  our international  artists we have featured on the podcast have artworks in the auction and this is a great way to acquire their work.

All 75 of the artworks can be viewed in the gallery or online at,  www.nordicartagency.com/art-auction

This is a silent auction and bids can be placed by email and until February 8th at 10:00 am.

Do please contact the gallery if you have any questions or would like any assistance with placing your bid, hello@nordicartagency.com

A short tour of the Art Auction has been pinned to our Instagram so you can also take a look at how the gallery looks with all these artwork on the walls.

Good luck with your art bidding!

Welcome to this first episode of Season 5 of the Nordic Art Agency Podcast. Art historian, gallerist and host Juliet returns with a new conversation with Swedish landscape watercolour artist Erik Hårdstedt.

OUTLOOK is the recent exhibition of Erik Hårdstedt's paintings which opened at the Nordic Art Agency in January 2024 and features 14 watercolour works. Recording from his current studio on the outskirts of Gokarna, a small town on the Indian West Coast, Erik discusses his painting practice and how travel, changes in scenery and different cultural input fuels his approach to his creative process which is an essential part of the identity and compositions of his painting.

The exhibition is now open at the Nordic Art Agency gallery until March 3rd. You can view the OUTLOOK digital exhibition catalogue online and can email the gallery of your wish to receive any more information about available paintings by Erik Hårdstedt.

View Eric Hårdstedt's Instagram and listen to his music, which interprets his artwork, on Spotify.

Join podcast host Juliet Rees Nilsson and exhibition curator and artist Sarah Blanking on this the final episode of Season 4.  This is the second year that the Nordic Art Agency has hosted a Winter Exhibition featuring 12 multidisciplinary artists from Southern Sweden and Copenhagen.

Sara Blanking invites three of the exhibiting artists; Christian Bluff, Lotta Blanking and Lucas Nagel to discuss their practices, materials and their personal reflections on the local art scene. 

The Winter Exhibition is open everyday until January 28th 2024 and includes artworks by: Anders Allard, Lotta Blanking, Kristian Bluff, Mirjam Ekespong, Zarah Flesser, Stina Henriksson, Dinusha Hoenjet (da), Agnes Vera Kaufmann, Sujatha Kristensen, Lucas Nagel, Malin Sjöstedt and Gitte Valentiner-Branth.

View the Winter Exhibition on the Gallery Store or the full digital exhibition catalogue .

A  new gallery concept is emerging in London's Soho with a focus purely on music art. This reflects the emergence of an increasing demand for art either created by musicians or which reflects music as a direct inspiration.

Film maker, award winning cinema owner, composer and musician Tom Lawes has a passion for instruments, primarily guitars and pianos, and a unique vision to exhibit bespoke and limited edition instruments alongside original artworks, limited edition and photography. His gallery Muphoria was born out of his passion for music, beautifully crafted instruments and a personal entrepreneurial approach to business.

Together with his team of other music enthusiasts and art experts he launched Muphoria, the first music art gallery on December 1st with a curated exhibition by many artists in many different mediums and fine art instruments.  Tom joins Juliet on this episode to discuss the gallery concept and his approach to custom made editions.

You can follow Muphoria on instagram as this very unique music art gallery evolves.

Swedish fibre artist Mia Hultgren studied at the The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation (BA) in Copenhagen and later at the Royal College of Art (MA) in London. 

Mia Hultgren was invited to be the first Artist in Residence at the Nordic Art Agency gallery in the autumn of 2023.  On this episode host Juliet discusses how Mia's initial visual intention towards the project evolved, how her creative practice has been informed during the residency and how the interaction with gallery visitors has impacted her approach to the new body of works.

The current solo exhibition ASPECTS by Mia Hultgren includes all of the fiber art pieces created  during this intense two month residency period of the Artist Residency.  This includes ten small abstract framed portraits Secret Meetings  and 18 individual Lacuna pieces.  In addition. Mia created three larger more geometric works called Connections and some small circular suspended works.

ASPECTS is open at the Nordic Art Agency gallery until December 2nd and the digital exhibition catalogue can be view online.

You can follow Mia Hultgren on Instagram 

On this podcast episode Juliet is joined by British paper and written text artist Caroline Attan.   Her works are instantly intriguing and striking using organic visual representations in order to merge folded paper with poetry, paradox and metaphors. The concepts and compositions in her artworks collide as coloured, patterned and folded structures, together create a woven and textual narrative.

Her picture mainly consists of dense circular composition of folded shapes rotating along side, and above hand written poetry. Caroline frequently selects extracts from  Latin American poetry, which is where the cultural significance comes into play.  This is reflected in context and language the elements of the poetry are interpreted through colour, form and rhythm. Her works also utilizes literary extracts by authors such as James Joyce to inspire her compositions.

A series of works by Caroline Attan are currently included in the exhibition CLAY, INK, PAPER at the Nordic Art Agency gallery.  You can view all works online in the digital exhibition catalogue.

Caroline Attan is represented exclusively in Scandinavia by the Nordic Art Agency and you can follow her on account instagram.

On this episode of the Nordic Art Agency Podcast host Juliet is joined by Rosie O’Connor the Co-Curator at Frameless, London's first permanent digital immersive arts experience. Frameless opened in September 2022 in the heart of London’s West End cultural district. 

As the biggest digital immersive arts experience of its kind in the UK, Frameless is a new art landmark destination, bringing art to life like never before.  So after almost a year of opening it's doors with a 4K multi-genre and multi-artist experience, featuring iconic masterpieces from the likes of Cezanne, Kandinsky, Monet, Canaletto, Rembrandt and Klimt how has this new immersive art experienced been received and what place does it take in the museum and gallery world?

Rosie O'Connor who studied Art History and Visual Culture and has a special interest in British Modernism, museology and accessibility in the arts gives us her take on the evolution and future of the immersive art experience.

TOGETHER / APART  is a solo exhibition of collaborative photography by Natalie Christensen and Jim Eyre who join Juliet on this podcast episode from their studios in England and New Mexico.   The composite images which feature in the exhibition are of surreal cityscapes embodying the disquieting experience of how our lives were transformed by the ravages of COVID-19.

Expanding on their earlier collaborative  work ALTEREDSTATES/ALTEREDSCAPES, Christensen and Eyre are again combining photographs from their respective communities and responding to the experience of leaving behind our former lives and participating in a global effort to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Architectural fragments and elements of the landscape are mingled to present diverse psychological experiences of this new world experience of  shock, loneliness, yearning and fear.

This podcast explores their unique creative collaboration and how their practice evolved during the global pandemic. 

TOGETHER / APARTwill be exhibited at the Nordic Art Agency until August 31st 2023 and the complete digital exhibition catalogue can be now online. 

You can find Natalie Christensen and Jim Eyre on instagram where you can see more examples of their work.

British visual artist Rupert Hartley trained originally in printed textile design at the Glasgow School of Art and later went on to take his MA in Art in Architecture at University of East London.  A constant in his work has been an exploration of architecture and city space and the  ‘the simulated environments and psychogeographies’.

The grid or square blocks and stripes are the formulaic language which dominates much of his work along side his commitment to colour, layering of paint and mixed media. Rupert works on a varied selection of ground materials including cardboard, repurposed fabrics and stretch and unstretched canvas.

Rupert Hartley's solo exhibition Inter - Scenic launches at the Nordic Art Agency on May 11, 2023.  This will be his first solo exhibition in Scandinavian. The complete digital exhibition catalogue will be published online and will be available to view from May 10th.

You can follow Rupert Hartley on Instagram or view his work on his artist page.

Saint has spent much of his career as a successful New York based photographers of iconic actors, musicians, athletes and fashion. The iconic images shot by Saint are a testament to his skill and understanding of the human form and this career has led to a constant revaluation and development of his photographic practices reimagining the role of lighting in photography by adapting techniques from scientific applications of flash and stroboscopics.

During his extensive career Saint has photographed actors and musicians such as Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren, Daniel Craig, Alesia Keys and Lady Gaga and athletes who are top of their game including Lebron James, Christiana Ronaldo and Serena Williams.

In 2018 there was a further shift in experimental techniques in photography which merged into an artistic practice using his photographic images as the basis of figurative, mixed media composite portraits and it is this which now dominates his creative focus.

This podcast gives an insight into Saint's development as an artist and painter and he discusses his the process and intention behind his most current body of work A Legacy of Light.

Saint will be exhibiting his new series at a gallery exhibition in New York this October and you can follow him on Instagram for all the latest news.

John Atherton is a Scottish screen print artist who studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.  He joins Juliet on this podcast conversation discussing his abstract portraiture process and the body of work he will exhibited in his first solo gallery exhibition in Sweden, Nostalgia of Distance, at the Nordic Art Agency.

The Vernissage of Nostalgia of Distance  will be held on March 23rd and a digital exhibition catalogue will be available to view online.  You can follow John Atherton on Instagram and view his own website.

John Atherton is a Guest Artist represented in the Scandinavia exclusively  by the Nordic Art Agency.

Our new season of art conversations begin with a discussion focused purely on abstract painting. Michael Gittings, one of the original founders of Playpaint, joins  Art Historian and Art Advisor Ebba Davidsson on this episode as they explores the philosophy and intention behind the initial project and the concept that playpaint make paintings to make paintings.

There are set rules which inform the Playpaint painting practice and determine the potential outcome and potential success.   The conscious  experimental approach, working with set components and attributes, transitioning between these components makes this painting process quite unique.

You can follow Playpaint on Instagram and on Twitter.

Playpaint will be exhibiting in two forthcoming group shows this Spring:

The New Accelerator

9 March - 3 April 2023

Ruskin Gallery

Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

This Year’s Model part II

2 - 6 March 2023

Studio1.1 

57a Redchurch Street, London E7 7DJ

The Winter Exhibition is our second exhibition of local artists opened which opened in November. The initial Open Call invited multi-disciplinary artists from Skåne and Greater Copenhagen to apply and the exhibition was juried by the Nordic Art Agency and  curated by Gry Hammarlund & Lars Herman Hegg.

Artists Exhibiting Include:  Stella Lindhagen, Magbule Lutolli, Anne Louise Blicher, Cesilia Per, Eva Myrdal Linstow, Gitte Valentiner - Branth, Jingbei Zheng, Jennifer Idrizi, Johanna Landin , Jonna Wakeham Ölund, Frida Rådlund, Lea Norrman Firus, Matteo Rosa and Mia Hultgren

On this podcast episode Art Advisor Ebba Davidson and Gallery Founder Juliet Rees Nilsson are in conversation with three of the participating artist, Lea Firus, Jennifer Idrizi and Mia Hultgren discussing their exhibited works and unique artist prcatices.

The Winter Exhibition is open 7 days a week at the Nordic Art Agency at Hansa from 10:00 - 19:00 until January 20th.

View & purchase all works in the exhibition by visiting, nordicartagency.com/NAA

Canadian floral abstract artists Bobbie Burgers joins host Juliet from her studio in Vancouver for an in depth conversation into her current practice, her compulsion to create and paint and how the passing of time continues to inform her artwork and compositions.

We have long admired Bobbie's large scale flora works and most recently her smaller scale collage and sculptural pieces and this podcast is an opportunity to deconstruct how she views her own work and the challenges and joy which she experiences in the studio.  

Careers are often guided by opportunity, discipline and determination and Bobbie's childhood experiences and early success offered her the potential to experience her live as an artist infused with nature, water and her environment.  

We very much look forward to welcoming Bobbie Burgers to the Nordic Art Agency in the future.

http://bobbieburgers.com/

On this podcast Juliet Rees-Nilsson introduces  two international artists and their current bodies of work, their artistic practices and solo exhibitions.

Victoria Curling Eriksson is a British painter  who works with minimal abstract land and seascapes. We have represented Victoria at the Nordic Art Agency since 2021 and this is her first solo exhibition to be held in our new gallery location.  'Visual Atmosphere' features 19 oil on canvas paintings which centres around the emotion response and connection made when fully present and immersed in skies, landscape and the ocean.

Our current guest artist is Jingbei Zheng, a ceramicist from Bejing, China.  'Your Fragility' is a series of 6 unglazed minimal clay vessels articulated with a crack like crevices, which consciously highlight the value of imperfection.  Jingbei Zheng is an industrial designer who approaches her practice and material with scientific and theoretical study.

Both exhibitions will be exhibited at the Nordic Art Agency until the end of December.  You can view both the 'Visual Atmosphere' and 'Your Fragility digital catalogues online.

You can follow Victoria Curling Eriksson on Instagram and Jingbei Zheng.

The art world is an ever evolving industry spurred on by technology & our desire to access artworks freely from the comfort of our own homes. Innovation continues to refine the industry & at the forefront of this are many artists driven platforms which increasingly eliminate the gallerist and connect the artists directly to the client online.

Altamira is one of the latest artist driven platforms that is changing the rules. On this podcast  Juliet Rees - Nilsson is in conservation with the Altamira’s Founder and CEO Michael Facchinello.  Altamira takes a slightly different approach to how artists can influence & impact the sites content. It offers independent curatorial insight to collectors bringing together artists, fans, and critics together in a space without gatekeepers and pretension.

You can follow Altamira on Instagram & learn more about the Pink Bison Art Prize 2023.  The two part blog Death of the Gallerist, written by Juliet and originally published in 2018, can be found online by visiting the Nordic Art Agency.

The NAA X Summer Exhibition is the first time that the Nordic Art Agency has collaborated with local artists from Malmö and the Greater Copenhagen region.  Inspired by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition held each year in London since 1796, an artist open call was held for a group exhibition in the Spring.

In a new separate gallery location, dedicated to emerging and established local artists, we curated a multi - disciplinary exhibition which opened on June 3rd and is free to explore 7-day a week.  The exhibition in is a busy commercial environment, with no real gallery presence or interaction required, just an opportunity to explore, absorb and reflect upon the art, sculpture, photography, weaving and fiber art. The exhibition features 11 artists including, Lucas Nagel, Julia Hallström Hjört, Lotta Blanking, Josefin Åberg, Lars Herman Hegg and Annie Weibull.

Together with co-host Lars Herman Hegg, Gallery Consultant and Technician, this podcast explore the motivation behind the exhibition curation, an insight into five of the featured artist's practices and their personal response.  Lars is in conversation with five participating artists; Swedish fiber artist  Mia Hultgren, Scottish collage artist John Atherton, Swedish painter Emil Carlsjö, Danish Mixed media artist Anne Gammelgaard and Troels Aagaard.

You will hear a mixture of accents, Norwegian, Danish, Sweden and shared experiences, very much in the sprit of the international mindset of the Nordic Art Agency and is an audible insight into the diversity of the exhibition and artists selected.

You can get in touch directly with Lars ideas for future local artist driven exhibition and collaborations.  All artworks can be view and purchased online .

Details of forthcoming exhibition mentioned by artist Troels Aagaard can be found here.  

We are thrilled that another guest joins us in-real-life  in the gallery for this latest podcast conversation.  British sculptor Hugh Chapman currently has a collection of six bronze and polished stainless steel sculptures in the gallery as part of the his Into the Light exhibition.

Hugh Chapman's visit to Sweden coincides with a gallery event dedicated to the exhibition, so podcast host Juliet Rees Nilsson and Co Host Ebba Davidsson sat down with Hugh for an impromptu recording in the gallery surrounded by the sculptures.

In this podcast we cover Hugh's recent exploration into VR (virtual reality ) sculpting, 3D printing and the importance of reducing his creative waste footprint and refining his practice to be more environmentally sustainable.  We explore scale and Concrete - Bob , a 3D printed figure which is mechanisms that Hugh has created in order to illustrate how his maquette sculptures can be 'transformed' in the gallery to achieve a sense of the monumental intention behind some of Hugh's work.

You can currently view the Into the Light digital presentation and digital exhibition catalogue online. The Into the Light exhibition will exhibited at the Nordic Art Gallery in Malmö until June 23rd.

Follow Hugh Chapman on Instagram and view images that accompany this podcast on the Nordic Art Agency Instagram account.

This episode was recorded in the gallery a few hours before the launch of   'A True Story' a solo exhibition by British collage artist Jo Hummel. Gallery Founder Juliet and Co - Host Ebba Davidsson decided to seize the opportunity to document these visiting artist.

This very impromptu discussion between  Jo and British abstract painter Sara Dare captures a moment, when after the pandemic, there is a sense of euphoria as artists are able to once again travel and be present in the gallery.  At times the recording quality isn't brilliant, but hopefully the atmosphere and joy is captured!

The conversation covers all aspects of Jo Hummel and Sara Dare's practice, material and exploration with in their painting and collage and how connection play an important role in the lives as artists. We also discuss the exhibition  'A True Story' and the body of work Sara Dare created for our current International Art Pop Up.

The solo exhibition 'A True Story' will be at the Nordic Art Agency Gallery until May 26th and the International Art Pop Up until June 23rd.  View the artists profiles of Jo Hummel and Sara Dare and all available artworks.

Mentioned in this podcast are artists and curators who collaborate with Jo Hummel and Sara Dare:

Karolina Albricht
Dominic Beattie
Tom Wilmott