Mamma Andersson

Karin Mamma Andersson
Birth name	Karin Andersson
Born	Luleå, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Field	Visual art, Contemporary art

Mamma Andersson (born 1962) is a contemporary artist based in Stockholm. She is represented by Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London [1] and David Zwirner, New York. She is one of Sweden's most internationally famous artists. She is married to Swedish contemporary artist Jockum Nordström.

Biography

Mamma Andersson's childhood home of Lulea is in North Sweden near the Polar Circle. She drew and painted from an early age without any family members being interested in art. She studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts and her nickname Mamma was added at that time to differentiate herself from another student with the same name. She was a mother during her time at art school and has two sons with artist Jockum Nordstrum. She started by painting landscapes because that was what she saw daily as she pushed her kids around in the pram. She worked as a guard at Moderna Museet in Stockholm and was influenced by work of Dick Bengtsson. To learn to paint she found she had to engross herself in others work and cites John E Franzen, Enno Hallek and her "greatest teacher" Dick Bengtsson. (from Moderna Museet 2007. Mamma Andersson, Steidl)

Work

Mamma Andersson's paintings depict domestic interiors, lush landscapes, and genre scenes just welcoming enough to allow their otherworldly air to take hold. Born in Luleå in 1962, and raised amidst forests and art books, her work is imbued with beguiling narrative zest and frequent references to the stage and everyday settings as well as to works by other artists. Both familiar and mysterious, most of Andersson's works include images of recognizable paintings by other artists as peculiarly placed accessories. In Stairway to the Stars, the ladder-like arrangement of canvases that floats upward before swirling mountains and a black sky includes works by Manet, Hopper, Monet, Gauguin, and Peter Doig. Andersson juxtaposes thickly layered paint and loosely washed areas, painting often with skewed perspectives, irreconcilable spaces, and impossible circumstances coexisting.

Exhibitions

Moderna Museet in Stockholm hosted a large solo exhibition of the artist's work in 2007, curated by Ann-Sofi Noring. The exhibition traveled to Helsingin Taidehalli, Helsingfors, and Camden Arts Center, London. The exhibition catalogue includes essays by Ann-Sofi Noring, Kim Levin and Midori Matsui, poems by Thomas Tidholm and a conversation between Karin Mamma Andersson and the author and playwright Lars Norén. An exhibition of the artist's prints is on view at Crown Point Press in San Francisco April–May 2009.

Articles

• Mamma Andersson At David Zwirner by Ken Johnson New York Times, June 2, 2006
• Selected press on the artist by year David Zwirner

External links

• Mamma Andersson at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
• Mamma Andersson - David Zwirner
• Mamma Andersson solo exhibition 2007 Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• Mamma Andersson solo exhibition 2007 Camden Arts Center, London
• Mamma Andersson: Setting the Scene 2009 Crown Point Press
• Karin Mamma Andersson monograph published by Steidl Steidl

Persondata
Name	Andersson, Mamma
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1962
Place of birth	Luleå, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death