Christian-Pontus Andersson

Ceramic Figures by Christian-Pontus Andersson

Christian Pontus Andersson (born 1977) is a Swedish artist and sculptor, living in Södermalm, Stockholm. He started studying ceramics at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm in 2002. During his studies, Andersson opened a ceramic workshop in the Chinese “porcelain capital” Jingdezhen where he produced in 2007 his master’s degree project, the large scale baroque series “Cry Me the Sorrows”.

Combining both high artistic and craftsmanship level, Andersson’s work gained a lot of attention at the annual Spring exhibition, and led to his first acclaimed solo exhibition at Christian Larsen Gallery. Andersson has also exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Stockholm, and participated in group exhibitions in Tokyo, Munich, Frankfurt, and Milan

The work of Christian Pontus Andersson balances between kitch and stringent form, creating a contrast between the extravagant homoerotic appearances of the figures and the fragile material of which they are made As sources of inspiration, Andersson mentions Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, and his work also resembles of Michelangelo, Matthew Barney and Jeff Koons.

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa, “Heads of Nuria and Irma”, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England

With 30 projects spanning the globe, Jaume Plensa is probably one of the most renowned Catalan sculptors in the contemporary art scene. Though he is mainly known for his large-scale ethereal sculptures, he has worked with a very diverse array of media, ranging from video projections to acoustic installations. Plensa’s work juxtaposes the intellectual and the poetic. Though these two concepts are often mutually exclusive, the artist somehow manages to create extremely evocative sculptures with a strong conceptual basis.

While many conceptual artists feel the urge to refuse beauty in order to convey an idea, the beauty and romanticism of Plensa’s sculptures manage to provide tangibility to his ideas. One of the many aspects in which the artist manages to do so is by introducing his works in the public space, thus allowing his sculptures to be animated by the city and its inhabitants.

Robert Therrien

Sculptural Installations by Robert Therrien

Born in 1947, Robert Therrien was an American artist known known for his large-scale sculptures. His work reimagined and reinvented objects from everyday life, such as a set of table and chairs or stacks of plates, turning them into monumental immersive sculptures. Los Angeles-based, Therrien was described as being possessed by a sense of wonder over commonplace experiences.

The artist’s solo exhibition at the The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2000 examined the work at what proved to be a crucial moment in his career. The show featured monumental new sculptures, including the 1994 “Under the Table”, “No Title”, a stack of blue plastic plates originally exhibited in 1999, and three gigantic beards.

“Therrien has been making exquisitely crafted sculptures that are easily recognized as objects encountered in the daily world. Yet, however recognizable the object, the sense of estrangement in these new sculptures is more pronounced than ever before.” – critic Christopher Knight