Sondra Sherman, Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou and Sanna Svedestedt Carboo

Artist list

Sondra Sherman, Sanna Svedestedt, Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou

Sondra Sherman, Associate Professor at San Diego State University, spent a month at Platina Stockholm studio on an IASPIS residency this summer, and we are happy to show her Rorschach Corsage series in this exhibition.
As the child of a pharmacist and a therapist, Sherman was always intrigued by the promises of both; the ‘natural cures’ of psychotherapy, and the efficiency of modern medicine. She expresses her ambivalence about the prevalent need for psychopharmica in hybrid abstractions of flower corsages created in blackened steel. The silhouettes of the pieces are derived from traditional flower corsages, while the surface botanical forms are medicines historically used to deal with emotional disorders- Valerian, and Belladonna to assuage anxiety, and St Johns Wort as an anti-depressant.
In these works, Sherman creates a medicinal corsage, and, jewelry that soothes. The recent Rorschach Corsages are comprised of layers reflective of the mediation of social and psychological experience of the wearer. The corsage silhouette is now mirrored and bilaterally symmetrical- a Rorschach test inkblot providing a field for the medicinal blossoms. The elaborate back sides of the brooches are inspired by the emotional states we do not proclaim in public, while the front surface presents a public persona.  And as in life, sometimes they escape their socially prescribed location.
 
Sondra Sherman is Head of the Jewelry and Metalwork Program at San Diego State University, CA, previous teaching includes, SUNY New Paltz, Savannah College of Art + Design, Rhode Island School of Design and Rhode Island College. Sondra Sherman received the Diploma degree (MFA) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich Germany, where she resided for 10 years.
 
Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou is an artist, gold and silversmith with her base and studio in Östersund, Sweden. For over fifty years, she has created jewellery with precise shape and refines simplicity. She is honoured with the Prince Eugen medal, received by the Swedish King and queen in 2004, for her outstanding artistic activity.
It has been said of Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou that she is one of the most prominent among the "sixties" of Swedish jewelry art, and perhaps more than others in her work summarized the evolution of form in the last four decades, where nature's organic mobility is played against more rigorous architectural form elements. In the exhibition we will see her latest work that she finished 2018.
 
Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou was educated at Konstfack in Stockholm 1956-1961 and at Kunst- und Werkschule in Pforzheim 1961-1962. Her work can be found in several collections such as National Museum in Stockholm, Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, Goldsmith Hall London, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustimuseum in Trondheim, Reuchlinghaus museum in Pforzheim
 
Sanna Svedestedt Carboo is a jewelry artist and vice chairperson at the Swedish Artists’ Association KRO. Living and working in Gothenburg, Sweden and with her roots in the northern parts of Sweden, her artistic work is often inspired by traditional crafts as she explores materials such as wood and leather.
She started working with leather in 2009 during her final project in Jewellery art and Design at HDK, School of Design and Craft in Gothenburg, looking for a material with strong connection to traditional craft where she could explore ways of developing an unexpected and contemporary expression. She says that naturally tanned leather, as it is a traditional craft material, possesses qualities that links her work to both the past and the future. By using old shaping techniques as for example Cuir Bouilli, the leather is transformed, creating a clash between controlled shapes and soft organic flow, that Sanna Svedestedt Carboo explains she is particularly drawn to.
2013 Sanna Svedestedt Carboo wrote a book about Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou. Therefor we are very happy to be able to show their works in this exhibition. (Published by Arvinius Förlag, 2013, Foreword by Cilla Robach)

Sanna Svedestedt Carboo, jewelry artist since BA- graduation from HDK Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, Sweden. Along other, she has been chairperson at the Association of Swedish Craftsmen and Industrial Designers 2015 – 2016 and Forum Editor for Klimt02, International Jewellery Art Community 2014 – 2016. Her work can be found National Museum in Stockholm and Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.


Artist Talk Between
Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou & Sanna Svedestedt Carboo on Saturday 1^st September at 15.00 h.