Our Personal Supermarket Art Fair
Presenting some of the artists we met
Every month we end with a little reflexion of the month and something little special for our paid subscribers. This May has been our busiest month yet due to the combination of featuring Dragana Jurisic and going to the Supermarket Art fair. But to welcome all our new readers, we decided to leave this post for everyone and not just our special members. Think of it as a big thank you for joining us! This year, we hope that together with the artists that we present, our stories will inspire you to start your own creative journeys.. If you like what you read on these pages, take a moment to let us know, share it with your friends or why not subscribe?
Just two weeks ago we wrapped up our booth at the Supermarket Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden. At times it feels like a dream that we were there, other times it feels that we are still there as impressions are many. We entered the fair with a bit of a burden of an imposter syndrome only to discover that we are right at home and surrounded by many passionate artists and curators and storytellers who create and maintain artist-run spaces around the world.
Supermarket Art Fair was created in 2016 as their website says “in reaction to the new commercial art fair Market.” First called Minimarket, over the years it turned into a real Supermarket where one can find a little bit of everything. The difference between the more commercial fairs that invite exclusively established galleries, Supermarket invites artist-run organisations who operate their own spaces independently, with their own sweat and work, often with no money support from institutions and galleries. And that made the energy electrifying this year, artists exhibiting, mingling, exchanging ideas and we were lucky to meet and converse with many. This year’s theme for the fair was TWILIGHT ZONE.
Our neighbour across the hallway from our booth was Gallery LOKOMOTIV from northern Sweden. They displayed Linus Krantz’s beautiful oversized prints, photographer Margareta Klinberg whose lens followed Ukranian children living in a refugee camp up in the northern Sweden as well as Kerstin Lindström whose beautiful crocheted sculpture “Rootless” adorned the floor as if a tree had just fallen on the grounds of the fair. The sculpture is part of a series “Habitat” which explores our relationship with nature.
Lindström wowed us not only with her fuzzy sculpture, but also with her stories about using rituals to create art. She travels over Sweden and the world for her project "Own Our Own Time," in which she encourages huge groups, sometimes as many as 83 people, to stand in a circle and knit together in order to reclaim their own time, memories, and traditions.
Candyland, a non-profit exhibition space in Stockholm that displayed the Belorussian photo series "Herbarium of Female Protests" by Eva Yarrow (pseudonym), also shared space on our floor. The initiative began in response to the stolen election in Belarus in 2020, and it reminded us of female strength and resilience, as well as the silent power of nonviolent resistance. The images are lovely and gentle, but the women's faces are covered in dried flowers since most of the women portrayed had to flee the country for safety, and one is still in Belorussia, her life in danger. They were there to remind us that they needed to support, but they also caused a bit of controversy.
On the ground level of the Stadsgrds Terminalen (an former cruise terminal) where the fair was held, one passed past galleries from Albania, Algeria, Los Angeles, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Lithuania. The second floor had even more galleries, from Colombia, Armenia, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, among other places.
We were wandering around the second level when we came upon a pile of bricks with the word "Yugoslombia" written on them, which reminded us of the theme we'd been dealing with all month while featuring the artist Dragana Jurisic. So we immediately began speaking with the curator Lorena Parada, who brought the Proyecto Faenza from Bogota, Colombia to Sweden, and we discovered that the artist Jorge Magyaroff's grandparents had indeed moved to Colombia from Yugoslavia between the two world wars. "Construccion ligeral" was the artist's attempt to bridge the two cultures. Parada informed us that several of the visitors to her stand shed unexpected tears. The theme of houses and construction were dominating this booth, reminding us of our personal yearning to connect as well as the human domination of nature. .
A booth that caught my eye as I walked by on my way to meetings was beautifully painted in pastel colors. It was the most stunning installation that seemed like a welcoming retro room. It wasn't until my colleague Karen Grace eagerly came over to tell us that she had just met the lovely Irish artist Jennifer Trouton, to whom the painting belonged, that I realized I needed to go to the booth and have a closer look at the artwork. Trouton who was brought from Limerick, Ireland by Ormston House, tackles the issues of female reproductive rights. A closer look at the paintings made me realize that this inviting room is a scene of illegal activity, abortion. It was only in 2018 that abortion was legalized in Ireland, but there is still a significant stigma attached to it. Meeting Trouton also reminded us how small the world is, as she is participating in another exhibition in Ireland with our featured artist Dragana Jurisic.
We came across Cristelle Mas, a French artist living in Finland, not far from Jennifer. Mas, who was brought to the fair by the Finnish gallery Galleria 5, exhibited a fascinating creature on the wall that appeared to be a drawing, but upon closer inspection and speaking with Mas herself, it was revealed to be a collage created of photographs. When I asked the artist why she moved to Finland, she answered it was because of the landscape, and yet this artwork was created by looking at an insect under a microscope. Art operates in surprising ways, producing astounding outcomes.
Another Finnish artist with whom we spent some time in conversation was Minna Kangasmaa whose plastic sculptures reminded us that micro-plastic is everywhere, it became part of nature: it’s present in the air, our seas, our lungs. She was at the Supermarket Art Fair with Neilö-Galleria from Finland.
This is only a glimpse of the people we met and the topics that affected us. Some we plan to feature in Tarantula: Authors And Art in the coming months, while others I invite you to check out on Instagram and their websites. Please go to the Super Market Artfair website. You will be able to find and read about all of the participants.
And while this wonderful experience is over for this year, we would still like to remind you that our virtual gallery is open. If you would like to inquiry about the artworks, please contact us at tarantula.authors.and.art@gmail.com and we will connect you to the artists for further communication. Here is the link to the virtual exhibition: https://visit.virtualartgallery.com/tarantula/
We are also still selling a few of the artworks that we took to Supermarket Art Fair. If you live in Stockholm, Sweden, please let us know if you would like to inquiry about the pieces by emailing us at tarantula.authors.and.art@gmail.com.
