Saara Ekström at Richard Levy Gallery in Albuquerque

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Careless Water a selection of photographs and videos by Finnish artist Saara Ekström. Assembled with natural and artificial materials, the artist combines photography and video to create her own hybrid form of surrealism. Her luminous imagery explores opposite worlds of growth and decomposition.

This body of work focusses on domestic objects that we encounter daily but rarely truly observe. Tilting trashcans, plastic chairs, fresh flowers and other collected items are re-contextualized to form peculiar cinematic compositions. Her sophisticated color palette is sourced from unremarkable objects — rubber bands, sewer tubes, insulation foam and the greygreen of various wires. Influenced by 17th century Northern European still life paintings, her work examines the transient nature of earthly matter. These brilliant photos exude a timeless quality that seamlessly blend traditional with contemporary.

The symbolism connected to materials becomes amplified in Ekström’s video, Man Before the Mirror. This piece merges video of a male tailor at work and surrealist imagery with an audio element of a woman reciting text. Based on the Dadaist text by Rrose Sélavy (a pseudonym of Marcel Duchamp), Man Before the Mirror describes the moment of self awareness when the mirror reflects its subject’s vanity.

Saara Ekström’s work has shown worldwide including exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki and the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art in Vaasa, Finland. She is an elected Helsinki Festival Artist of the Year and has received awards from Ars Fennica, Carnegie, Wihuri and Stina Krook Foundations. Her work is collected internationally by the Swedish and Finnish Governments, Helsinki City Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiasma, and the Northern Arizona University of Art Museum in Flagstaff among many others. Ekström is a current resident at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York.

Richard Levy gallery homepage

The exhibition is open until the 19th of December.

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102

Contact: 505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com