Barnard has the pleasure of presenting To Reach Japan a group of paintings by Swedish born South African artist Tom Cullberg. Charting territories between seemingly tangible and intangible worlds, his paintings consider processes of association and recognition in the reading of both private and public narratives.
“This merging with subjects through the act of painting to make sense of the world, and to relate to the objects (analogue technologies), memories, events, and landscapes around me. Everything is operating simultaneously on these different levels: the initial often inchoate pull of a physical form, the shape-shifting openness of its myriad interpretations, and the creation of something new – a feeling, an understanding, a perspective – that can happen in that engagement.” (Tom Cullberg, Cape Town, May 2021)
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To Reach Japan
‘Writing this letter is like putting a note
in a bottle
And hoping
It will reach Japan'
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FEATURED WORKS
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"In the paintings Falling 2 and Waiting, Different Levels of Expression the figure is frozen in an in-between state, - the opposite of movement.
Falling before landing, waiting before the action. I have dressed the waiting figure and the fighters in Finish Marimekko cloth."
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"The tape deck paintings Explain This to Me and Imperfect Needs speak most literally to this notion, and how it operates on different levels: it’s this ‘old’ thing that we don’t use anymore, now replaced by the smartphone, but that anyone born before 1980 can vividly recall the feeling of – that solid pressing down of a button, the sound of the tape rolling, the music listened to, but whose very recollection plays with the interpretations of one’s own memories."
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"The interiors in the book paintings: Remember your Friends and Houses stem from images of the homes of iconic mid-century designers and architects Vladimir Pagan and Walter Gropius but modified with details referring to my own home and art practice. “Houses” is based on a Japanese Global Architecture magazine from the 1980’s.
A page mixed with titles such as Le Corbusier with made-up and self-referential titles as Ambition Mid-Life ( at a premium 98.000 yen ), Naughty Drawings ( referring to a series of erotic drawings I once made) and Women Architects of the 80’s, a jeer to the male dominated world of architecture. Reclaimed Land: migration and land distribution (South Africa’s land-notion of home). Selected Writings, of what story to tell. The Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon. Closeness and I Close my Eyes."
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Tom Cullberg in his studio
Biography
A graduate of the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, Cullberg has gone on to present eighteen solo exhibitions in five different countries and his work has been included in curated exhibitions at various prestigious institutions and museums including amongst others Kulturhuset, Stockholm; Goteborgs Konst Museum, Gothenburg; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg and IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
Barnard presented Cullberg’s work at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2018 followed by the artist’s first solo show with the gallery entitled Finding New Life in an Old Form. To accompany the exhibition Barnard published a limited edition overview of the artist’s work to date.Later the same year Barnard presented the artist’s paintings at START, Saatchi Gallery, London and AKAA - Also Known As Africa in Paris. Prior to this Cullberg participated in various local & international art fairs including the FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (2008-2009 / 2011-2013); SCOPE, New York (2012). More recently Barnard presented Cullberg's work at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2020) & the artist held his second solo exhibition, Record / Play, at Barnard in 2020.Cullberg's work can be found in the collection of the Swedish Parliament as well as a number of corporate collections including SASOL, Spier and Hollard in South Africa and Nandos in the UK.
