Nygårds Karin Bengtsson

Nygårds Karin Bengtsson’s work is developed in a staged reality, free of all unnecessary, noisy and disturbing features. Always stripped down, her images revolve around the timeless questions of how we relate to time and space, fiction and reality, memory and vision. The exhibition at Fotografiska is Nygårds Karin’s largest solo presentation to date.

the images are carefully arranged

The series Untold Stories (2004–ongoing) comprises works staged to become recollections. Like still lifes, the images are carefully arranged and constructed with regard light, colour and form. With her staged photographs Nygårds Karin’s wishes to demonstrate how life is gradually being transformed from a story into a memory. This is where fiction meets reality. Which is which?

Nygårds Karin Bengtsson’s art comprises almost all the elements of a film production: script, direction, set design, casting, costumes, lighting and props. The scenes depict a state before – or after – a dramatic event. The actual drama occurs in the viewer’s experience of the image.

Information is not added but hidden

The line between fiction and reality is erased in her photographs. Information is not added but hidden. Nevertheless, however abstract the photograph may be, a distinct connection to reality is always found.

Born in Mora in 1972, Nygårds Karin Bengtsson lives and works in Södåkra, Höganäs, Skåne. She holds an MFA from the School of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland, 2003. In 2010 her work Deer Room received the distinction “The Jury’s Choice” at the Spring Salon at Liljevalchs in Stockholm. She has been awarded numerous grants, including the City of Stockholm Culture Grant, 2011. She has exhibited at Kunsthalle Helsinki, Finland; Eskilstuna Art Museum and Alingsås Konsthall, Sweden, among others. She is also represented in the collection of Malmö Art Museum. Nygårds Karin Bengtsson is currently completing three new works that will be premiered at Fotografiska in the autumn.