Checking out the rainy day view from the cafe at the Fotografiska Museet in Stockholm.

Yesterday, we checked out the brand new Fotografiska Museet – a museum that showcases contemporary photography. Not only did I enjoy the exhibitions, I also loved the building itself and the view.

The opening exhibitions featured photographs by Annie Leibovitz, Vee Speers, Lennart Nilsson and Joel-Peter Witkin. Each artist has a uniquely different vision from the others. Leibovitz’s exhibition featured many of her iconic shots for magazines Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, including photos of Demi Moore, Brad Pitt, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Bill Clinton, as well as more personal photos of her parents, children and longtime partner Susan Sontag. Given that I knew so much of Annie’s work, I was surprised by how much I did not know and how much I enjoyed it all.

The Nilsson exhibit featured his groundbreaking photos of the human fetus inside the womb. These photos are spectacular not only in what they show, but also in how beautiful they are. The other two exhibitions are also more than worth checking out, as is the building itself. The Stora Tullhuset is an old customs house that has been beautifully restored and makes for a great exhibition space. And the location directly on the Baltic means that the views looking out are photograph-worthy in themselves. Here’s a link to the museum’s web site: Fotografiska Museet. And also a link to fellow Stockholm blogger Anne’s firsthand account of the opening party: Livet Lagom.

Some of the New York photos by Idha at the Allmänna Galleriet.

Last night, we traveled to New York City. Or at least, it was New York by way of Kungsholmen. More specifically, we went to the vernissage of a photography exhibit. Titled Distortions, the photos were taken by our next door neighbor Idha Lindhag and featured architectural shots of her winter sabbatical in New York. Idha’s photos have an Alice in Wonderland feeling and Idha says that she felt a bit like Alice walking around New York and looking at the buildings.

Photographer Idha Lindhag talks with Robert at the opening.

The show is at Allmänna Galleriet on Kungsholmen until the end of the month. Beyond being a gallery space, this is also a cool and casual place to go and hang out and have a drink or dinner, by the way. Even the warehouse space there reminds me of New York.

You can check out Idha’s photos on her website.

The interior courtyard gardens at Tessin Palace.

Last night was one of those nights where when we walked into a bar, the band stopped playing. We seemed to be just missing all the fun.

With a group of eight friends, we went to Kulturnatt or culture night. All sorts of galleries, palaces, theaters and bars stayed open late and you could listen to live music, see art, dance and movies, hear poetry and much more. It was the first time Stockholm has done a night like this and I was keen to check out the ambitious lineup.

I should have known that it was all too much to cram into one night. Our first stop was Tessin Palace on Gamla Stan. The palace is rarely open to the public and we were excited to check it out. But you had to have separate tickets for the palace itself, which we just missed out on. So we got to look at the gardens instead. Which were gorgeous at least. When we went to the Mint next door to hear music, it was not open yet. And at Kungsträgården, there was no live music to be found. We spent our evening walking from venue to venue, but never quite getting to see what we wanted. It became comical after a while.

Robert and Tracy enjoying the sun on the way into Kulturhuset.

It was a good thing the evening was warmer and we were all in a fun mood. Because we did have a good time in spite of it all. And while we got to see an interesting photo exhibition, when we walked into a place where live music was being performed, the band stopped as we walked in, after having apparently played for 2.5 hours. At that point, we noticed everyone in the room was playing Monopoly and Scrabble. So it was obviously not the liveliest of spots anyway. Robert and I ended the night with Tracy at Fasching – a legendary jazz club – listening to classic soul music and dancing until 3 am. Now that was fun.

Debora House at the Ljus och Mörker opening in Stockholm on Skeppsholmen. Photos by Stig Bengtsson.

It’s been an arty weekend for me. Last night, we went to the opening of a group show called Ljus och Mörker or Light and Darkness by my friend Debora House. Debora is a fellow American, last living in Bainbridge Island, and is one of the very first people I met when I moved to Stockholm. We connected over our love of art and it has been so good to see her work progress over the years.

For the show at Mobila Konsthallen on Skeppsholmen, she had a collection of her large-scale acrylic landscapes on canvas, all inspired by the light. The vernissage was packed and two paintings sold, so Debora had a great night. And for us guests, it was also a fun party and way too much wine was consumed.

At the start of the night at Mobila Konsthallen.

Art opening number two was tonight and was for Brandon Kralik, another American artist. This show was at Galleri Gunnrummet in Gamla Stan or the Old Town. In contrast to Debora’s abstract landscapes, Brandon’s vernissage showcased his classically beautiful oil still lifes, painted in the style of the old masters. Again, this opening was packed, but I only had one glass of wine so as to recover from last night.

Opening number three  was also in Gamla Stan, but at the Global Art gallery. This show featured the work of Estonian artist Tarmo Roosimölder and his large oil on canvas landscapes. His paintings were sparse in detail, but whimsical in character.

It was good to see the work of three very different artists all in the course of a weekend. But by opening number three, I did not even want to think about having a glass of wine!

The view looking out from the residence is also a work of art.

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to see Swedish art on American soil, so to speak. I was at the US ambassador’s for a showing of Swedish contemporary art.

The exhibition was titled Living with Swedish Contemporary Art and Design. Since the majority of the work was accessible and interesting, it did feel like you could live with it – if you were lucky enough to live in as fantastic of a home as this one, that is.

There was an interesting mix of paintings, photographs and furniture that worked well with the art and furniture already there. I particularly liked a painting by Felix Gmelin titled Miss Atomic Bomb and a photograph printed on aluminum by Lars Nilsson titled Avsked (Farewell). And there were also some very interesting furniture pieces, including a chair that I wanted to bring home by Anna von Schewen.

With contemporary art, you often find pieces that are visually interesting, but that you think: there’s no way I could ever live with that. So it felt good to see art that I could live with. And it also felt good to be back in the art world again, almost like I was at my old job working for art magazines.

The table by Cate & Nelson was a cool contrast to the traditional furniture in the home.

Globes by Bigert & Bergström are perfectly duplicated in the adjoining mirror wall.

On our walk home from the Moderna, we saw this icy view of Nybroviken and the boats to the archipelago. Photo by Robert Corkery.

On our Sunday walk, Robert and I stopped at one of our favorite places in Stockholm – the Moderna. The Modern Museum consistently has some of the best curated shows that I have seen anywhere. Exhibits are done thoughtfully and with good attention to detail. I tend to like how the museum hangs their shows. Plus, the museum cafe has one of the best views in Stockholm, looking over the Ladugårdslandsviken toward Strandvägen.

We checked out the show by modern Swedish artist Evert Lundquist who made his painting debut in 1934 and kept working for the next 50 years. The majority of Lundquist’s canvases here have thick impasto layers of color. On many canvases, the paint is laid on so thick that it takes on a sculptural identity. It is the kind of textural stuff I love, the kind that makes me want to be a bad museum goer and poke my fingernail into the paint and just feel the rough surface. The thick impasto looks interesting close up, but the designs really pack a good punch from across the room as well. And the show is definitely worth checking out, by the way, for an insight into Swedish modernism.

Yesterday we went to see the Salvador Dalí exhibit at the Moderna Museum here in Stockholm. It is my favorite museum in town, not only for the great views from the cafe, but also for the art. The Moderna always seems to be able to push the envelope in regard to putting on comprehensive and exciting shows, much like they did with the Warhol exhibit last year.

This show did a fantastic job of showing how Dalí was truly a master at exploring all sorts of mediums beyond his paint brush and drawing pencil. He appeared as a performance artist on TV, created posters for the French trains, magazine covers for Vogue and countless ads for all sorts of things, including stockings and Alka Seltzer. He worked with Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock.

There is no doubt that Dalí was quite a media savvy dandy, but he could also draw. His finely detailed figure drawings for the Comte de Maldovor’s poetic book  were stunning. And I love the description of surrealism that the Comte himself coined: “The chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.”

Dalí was a pop artist long before Warhol hit the scene and brilliantly created a public vision of himself. And in an interesting twist, the Moderna paired Dalí’s work with contemporary celebrity artist Francesco Vezzoli. The exhibit did a good job of comparing the artists’ works and showing how Dalí used certain objects, including spoons, fried eggs and crutches over and over.

The show is on until January 17th. Check it out if you have the chance: see the Moderna.