Blue Sea, Resting Mountain by Karin Johansson

Artist list

Karin Johansson

The exhibition at Platina brings together work from the series Colors and Journey. The title Blue Sea, Resting Mountain is picked from two pieces of the exhibition.

What is central and unites the work in the exhibition is the use of enamel.
 
Enamel is a technique and material I have, over the years, come back to. With its possibilities and challenges, I enjoy it. A combination of decisions and control, together with an element of chance, makes the process interesting and adds a moment of surprise too. The fact that enamel is its own material, not just a colour makes it special. Even with the thinnest layer of enamel, you can achieve depth and perspective. An imagination of something both near and distant, macro and micro at once.


Colors/necklaces
In September/October 2023, I spent time at Villa San Michele Guest Area in Anacapri on Capri Island. Besides the opportunity to share space and experiences with fellow grant recipients from the areas of art, science and journalism, it gave me precious time to reflect and focus on my own artistic practice. Another place, a different context, is always, sooner or later, followed by new perspectives and openings.

Daily long walks brought me along steep coastlines, narrow passages and remote places on the top of the island. In between, silent moments around the Villa and garden. Endless views as well as smells, sounds, colors and details. Culture and nature, structure and disorder.

Back home, with a treasure box of notes and impressions, I decided to select a number of photos/observations from the island. These became the frame and guideline for the work to be developed in my studio. One photo, one palette, one necklace.

The necklaces carry enamelled tubes of silver, in between them, small discs of gold. The enamel is attached and fired in several layers, and the surface is glossy. Every necklace is individual, but with a common measurement system and the selection of colors they are joined as a group. The titles point back to the photos, the origin, and the inspiration.


Journey/brooches
The brooches in the exhibition mainly belong to the series JOURNEY, made and developed after time as an Artist in Residence in Dunedin, New Zealand in 2020. Just like in the COLORS series, I used my own photos as a tool, frame and inspiration in the search for forms and context.
 
In the photos, I found the undefined, the negative space in between other elements interesting. I tried to catch the space, made drawings, cut them out of paper and played with the scale. Finally, the forms were sawn in silver. With a thin layer of mixed enamel powder, the metal was covered and fired. The surface is subtle, tactile, often both matt and glossy. The tone is dark.

Later, new shapes emerged in the dialogue with already existing pieces of the project. Often found in the empty space between the brooches. Other times, just forms and colors contribute a new direction to the theme and work as a whole.

Abstractions and clues, perceived and defined in various ways.
Free-standing forms and symbols, joined in a mental or physical landscape.
A rebus, an ongoing story.
 
 
In conjunction with the opening of Stockholm Craft Week, the artist's new publication, Observations from a Distance, will be presented and available, together with a small selection of pieces of the series. The earlier publications, Abstractions of a City and  Collecting Butterflies, will also be available in the gallery.


Opening: 2 October 2025 ;during Stockholm Craft Week.


About Karin Johansson
Born in Sweden, and currently works and lives in Gothenburg. She attended HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design at Gothenburg University, where she earned her MFA degree in 1994. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in many international galleries and locations, such as The National (Christchurch), Ornamentum Gallery (Hudson/NY), Galerie Marzee (Nijmegen), Hannah Gallery (Barcelona), and OONA Galerie (Berlin). Her work is featured in several private and public collections, and she is a recipient of several major grants and awards. She is one of the founders of the international jewellery gallery Hnoss in Gothenburg, later Hnoss Initiative. Between 2007 and 2019, Karin Johansson was the head of the department/professor of the Jewellery Art department at HDK -Valand Academy of Art and Design, Gothenburg University.