In this falls group exhibition, NAU Gallery presents a selection of five artists whose works are linked through a common element of photography. Whether it be the medium, inspiration or creative instrument; photography is used as part of the artist´s method to depict subjects such as identity, belonging, reality and fiction via their work.

Tomas Lundgren (1985) completed his Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Konstskolan Valand, last spring and is now living and working in Gothenburg. The starting point for his work is the photographic archive where Lundgren explores and reveals parts of the past through his paintings. In the series “Recognizing the Wounded”, Lundgren has reviewed photo archives from the American Civil War, circa 1861-65. Photographically documented for their damages during the war, these soldiers take a lead role in Lundgren’s paintings, as he highlights through his portraits, the individuals behind the damage and varied symptoms they are bearing.

Katja Kremenic (1982) lives and works between Berlin in Germany and Ljubljana in Slovenia. With a Bachelor degree in Media and Communication and an self-taught within photography, she works with both personal projects and commercial assignments. In this exhibition, NAU Gallery is showing a selection of photographs from Kremenic´s on-going project where she explores personal and photographical journeys through the camera lens. Her work is more than just documentary snapshots, where Kremenic leads the viewer through an interpretation of real stories in an encounter of a personal journey, within a romanticized world, beyond everyday life.

Leonard Johansson (1987) is currently in his last year studying a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at Camberwell College of Arts, London. In the exhibition he is showing his work “Alistar” which is the first in his series of photographic paintings concerning the relationship between identity and acceptance. With a photograph taken in one of societie’s most private rooms, it allows both symbols and black humour to speak through Johanssons work. Reality and fiction flow together behind closed doors, where Alistar confronts herself and her distorted conception of the world. 

Mette Colberg (1981) completed her Master’s degree in Ceramic and Glass at Konstfack, Stockholm last spring and is now living and working in Copenhagen. In her work, Colberg examines the transparency of glass and its status outside the object. In the series “The Space Between Us” she explores the reality on the other side of the camera by using a handmade glass filter. Through photography she captures the intangible aspects and ambiguity of transparent glass where the glass filter brings out the invisible space between the photograph and the picture on the other side. Through this series, she highlights the ability of the glass to convey presence and absence, where the glass as an object is not the most interesting thing, but rather what is happening through it.

Karl Patric Näsman (1986) is currently in his first year of a Masters degree in Fine Arts at Konstfack, Stockholm. In his work, Näsman portrays his interest in different values projected on art. By asking critical questions about emotional, economical and historical values, he collects both fragments and stories to use as material for his projects and work. In his series “Greetings from”, Näsman makes a remark on how countries promote their best sides with the help of idyllic landscapes. Via the use of postcards from different places, Näsman creates collages of constructed landscapes and new idealized alpine sceneries in an attempt to generate the perfect panorama.