Peter Frie: Merenranta
June 4–August 9, 2020
Galerie Forsblom takes pleasure in reopening the gallery for the public with an exhibition by the Swedish artist Peter Frie (b. 1947). Frie invokes a sense of the sublime by filling the gallery with the awe-inspiring, elemental forces of nature. His images of endless sea and low-hanging sky are universally identifiable. They have very powerful genius loci, yet they also possess a metaphorical universality that transcends the physical location. Frie’s timeless landscapes have an experiential resonance to which everyone can relate. He transports us to places that exist in our memories – indeed, this is the only place they exist, for Frie paints only from memory, never by replicating real landscapes.
Frie’s paintings are informed by the legacy of landscape painting, particularly the romantic tradition of imbuing scenery with a powerful emotive presence. His canvases present nameless scenes that remind us of places we know or foreign lands we have visited, or they might equally represent landscapes within ourselves. Either way, our encounter with the landscape is a highly personal experience, evoking ineffable feelings and memory traces that are unnecessary to verbalize.
Much as Frie’s landscapes metaphorically capture states of mind, they are devoid of all human presence. He focuses purely on painting the sea in dialogue with the sky resting upon the horizon. He captures ray of light rising from the sea, glistening in hues from cool, clear blue to shades of radiant gold.
Frie is one of Sweden’s most renowned contemporary artists. He has exhibited widely across Europe and taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Asia. His work is found in museums such as Stockholm’s Moderna Museet and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. He is also represented in numerous private collections across Europe and the United States. Frie won the Ars Fennica Award in 1998.
Please note that special attention will be given to the level of hygiene in the gallery. The health and safety of our visitors and staff members is our priority, and we ask visitors to maintain a safe distance to one another and the staff members.