ISSUES

WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!

Two years have passed since the first iteration of Downtown Issues, the inaugural exhibition at the current space on Vattugatan 13. This time, no less than 58 artists are contributing to the show.

Opening a commercial yet experimental gallery in the city centre of Stockholm post pandemic was probably not the most safe bet. But the community and scene surrounding ISSUES was literally asking for it. Two years later, we have produced 16 exhibitions, participated in Market Art Fair twice and in September we open Stockholm Issues, showcasing a selection of our artists in Seoul, South Korea, bringing our world to the other side of the world.

As for this show, limiting the curatorial scope to the given format of 50×40cm, not only makes the project manageable but it also gives the artists a chance to try something new or take a step out of their comfort zone. Of course some artists couldn’t care less about the task at hand and have done something completely different.

It’s easy to think about who is not in the show, especially because the exhibition is an attempt to frame a scene of local and semi-local artists working with striking and exciting imagery, sculpture and installation.

We could think of many artists who should have been invited and maybe we thought about them too late, they have started to work with other galleries or we felt this particular iteration of Downtown Issues was getting too much to handle.

Regardless, please enjoy this visual cacophony. If you focus on one artwork, you will soon see that it has all the space in the world.

— Oscar Carlson