Contemporary Swedish Silver. New Approaches to an Enduring Tradition

Artist list

Tobias Birgersson, Klara Eriksson, Petronella Eriksson, Lena Jerström, Maki Okamoto, Pernilla Sylwan, Erik Tidäng

LOD - a group of seven silver artists who share a combined studio and a gallery in Stockholm - seeks to keep silver production alive and create a higher interest for their skills. The silver is handled without gloves to demonstrate that it is not something to be put away in a closet, but be used all the time in daily life. They are revising the appearance of traditional products. Good examples are Klara Eriksson’s bowel and whisk. And why not have a sink stopper in silver and rubber?
 
You have to create a teapot before you are a real silversmith, says Petronella Eriksson. In the exhibition several teapots are reworked and given new shapes as in Erik Tidäng´s constructivistic or Petronella Eriksson´s soft and organic form. To merge materials as a method breaks down previously established hierarchies. Lena Jerström mixes silver, cork and textile in her teapot and Klara Eriksson tree branches and silver.


About the curator:
Inger Wästberg is an art historian, has a master exam on contemporary jewellery. She has in different positions worked with information and advocacy. She has been a member of Stockholm city council, vice chairman of Stockholm University, senior advisor to the minister of Social Affairs and director general for the Office of the Disability Ombudsman. She is a member of The Global Leadership Council at The Museum of Arts and Design, New York and a member of the advisory board at Ädellab, University College of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm. Inger Wästberg has also written books on disability legislation and on New York.