Journal
Stay up to date with the latest news from WILLAS contemporary.
Explore the photography art scene with us through exclusive insights into our upcoming and current exhibitions in Stockholm and elsewhere. Plus, revisit the highlights from our previous encounters.
CONFLUENCE OF PATHS ERLE M. KYLLINGMARK
WILLAS contemporary is thrilled to introduce Erle M. Kyllingmark’s work to Sweden for the first time. The Norwegian artist’s solo exhibition in Stockholm, ‘Confluence of Paths’, showcases her unique approach to capturing time, layering multiple exposures across seasons and years into single frames.
"The Echo of Our Voices," is the fourth Chapter of The Day May Break. It was photographed this year in Jordan, the second-most water-scarce country in the world.
The photographs feature mostly rural Syrian refugee families who have been seriously impacted by climate change. They are forced to move their homes several times a year to wherever there is available agricultural work and sufficient rainfall to enable crops to grow.
We invite you to book an appointment to see these prints in person in Stockholm or Oslo.
THE ECHO OF OUR VOICES – NICK BRANDT
HELENE SCHMITZ IN "THE ROMANTIC EYE" AT NATIONAL MUSEUM
We’re thrilled to share that 3 powerful works by Helene Schmitz are featured in a landmark exhibition that opened this week at the National Museum in Stockholm. Helene Schmitz is represented by 3 works in the exhibition; Studies in Falling, Studies in Falling/The Island, and the Highland View from the Kudzu Series, works that encourage personal reflection and connection. The exhibition is brilliantly curated by Carl Johan Olsson.
This spring we are thrilled to announce exhibitions featuring the renowned artist Jeff Cowen at
HOUSE Berlin
Fotografiska Stockholm
Huis Marseille Museum for Photography and
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
JEFF COWEN EXHIBITIONS THIS SUMMER
SEE A WORLD IN A GRAIN OF SAND
A Group Show at IVAR - Tändstickspalatset, Stockholm from June 20th. The exhibition, organized by WILLAS contemporary, features works by Roger Ballen, Jacob Gils, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Jimmy Nelson, Helene Schmitz, and Vee Speers. We invite you to visit the Matchstick Palace in the heart of Stockholm and see a world in a grain of sand.
Opening hours are Monday - Friday, 9 AM - 4 PM.
ARNO RAFAEL MINKKINEN - Human Nature at Sliperiet in Borgvik
The "Human Nature" exhibition at Sliperiet showcases Arno Rafael Minkkinen's photography spanning from 1970 to 2020, captured across thirty countries and thirty American states. This exhibition isn't laid out chronologically nor is it a retrospective. Instead, it’s an introspective focusing on the existential human condition through selfportraiture, offering an exuberant experience from an artist who has eluded categorization for more than five decades.
MONOCHROMATIC MINIMALISM
by BASTIAAN WOUDT
— a contemporary twist to classic photography
We are thrilled to introduce Bastiaan Woudt (1987, NL) and welcome you to his first solo exhibition in the Nordic countries!
The exhibition is open Monday - Friday 9 am - 5 pm - DM us for more information!
WILLAS contemporary — IVAR Tändstickspalatset - Våstra Trådgårdsgatan 15 - Stockholm.
The Inside Out Centre for the Arts will open in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, 28 March 2023, with an exhibition highlighting the African continent's ecological crisis.
The Inside Out Centre for the Arts is an art exhibition space and educational centre founded by internationally renowned artist-photographer Roger Ballen.
News from ROGER BALLEN
Reception & Exhibition in Oslo 9th of March 2023
The man, the myth, the legend - Arno Rafael Minkkinen returned to Norway to contribute to the Nature Photography Festival in Ski 2023. We had the immense pleasure of hosting an intimate reception in Mr Minkkinen's honour in Oslo on the 9th of March.
ARNO RAFAEL MINKKINEN
Five Favorites from Five Decades
In Bloom at Fotografiska until June 11th 2023
Timed with the emerging burst of spring, In Bloom at Fotografiska brings together 16 photographers, all striving to understand and explore nature and humanity’s relationship to it.
One of them is the renowned British photographer Cig Harvey:
“There is war. There is a virus. In the time it took to write this sentence, somebody died, somebody was born, a language disappeared, a mass shooting occurred, a forest burn began, an insect crushed, and an idea inched forward.
"My pictures are an urgent call to live. A primal roar. Be here, now. Experience this. Feel this.
My pictures are of flowers, but they are not about flowers; they are about living and dying.”
Introducing CIG HARVEY
In Bloom at Fotografiska until June 11th 2023
Schmitz´s work is about the connection between humans and nature; it is about transitions and how everything is transformed into something else.
For the exhibition IN BLOOM - Helene Schmitz revisited her archives and discovered works from Costa Rica, from the Cloud forest Santa Helena, in 2017. It is a vulnerable ecosystem threatened by global warming. Schmitz decided to present these works as circular images - something she had never done before. The prints are mounted as dibond with beautiful handmade walnut frames. The Circle is a symbol of perfection and how everything is connected.
HELENE SCHMITZ - Globe Works
Jan - Apr. 2023
A new collaboration with Villa Dagmar in Stockholm. This newly opened boutique hotel in the heart of Östermalm invites galleries and artists to collaborate in the hotel's social spaces. We chose works by the Paris-based Australian artist Vee Speers as our second showcase.
The selected works are from Speers’ Dystopia, speaking directly of a world that has come unhinged. Yet even if the sun goes cold and fear is present, her imagery speaks of freedom.
VEE SPEERS at Villa Dagmar
8.12-8.1.2023 online exclusive on ARTSY
A selection of works by Australian-born, Paris-based artist Vee Speers reflecting on the connection and influence of nature on fashion. It presents a selection of fashion-like photographs which she styled and staged on her famous rooftop terrace in Paris and botanic still lifes.
Fashioned from Nature
HELENE SCHMITZ —
Thinking Like a Mountain
29.9 - 9.10 at Sotheby’s in Stockholm
WILLAS contemporary is thrilled to present the exhibition entitled #5 by the Dutch artist Anton Corbijn at Sotheby’s in Stockholm.
Anyone with a slight interest in visual culture and music are familiar with Corbijn´s work. He is known to have shaped the identity of bands like U2 and Depeche Mode and visualised popular music for the past 40 years. The way Corbijn captured his subjects using grainy film in natural light has become an integral part of our visual culture.
ANTON CORBIJN — #5
23.9 - 16.10 at Oslo Negativ
WILLAS contemporary is thrilled to present Helene Schmitz’s Thinking Like a Mountain — photographic explorations of the power balance between man and nature – and what happens when it goes off kilter.
1.9 - 26.2.2023 at OPEN MUSEUM - St. Gallen
Even though it is highly topical, the subject of anorexia is taboo. For the first time outside Scandinavia, the exhibition HUMAN by Lene Marie Fossen will present the Norwegian photographer Lene Marie Fossen’s [1986–2019] powerful self-portraits.
LENE MARIE FOSSEN — Human
A Group Show on ARTSY
We are thrilled to share with you our summer show "Offering Beauty Back to the Balance" - a careful selection of works by some of our favorite artists; Roger Ballen, Nick Brandt, Jeff Cowen, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Jimmy Nelson, Helene Schmitz, Jan C. Schlegel and Erle Kyllingmark
"When the world is falling apart it is extra urgent to offer beauty back to the balance as an act of redemption."
- Jeff Cowen.
Offering Beauty back to the Balance
22 - 24 June 2022
GTF presents an exhibition by one of photography’s great environmental champions, Nick Brandt. The Day May Break, photographed in Zimbabwe and Kenya late 2020 and in Bolivia in March 2022 are the first parts of a global series portraying people and animals impacted by environmental degradation and destruction.
NICK BRANDT - Green Tech Festival
14 -19 June 2022
WILLAS contemporary is thrilled to announce the participation at Photo BASEL (Booth A3), bringing together acclaimed artists who are at the forefront of movements for change, grappling with society’s most prescient challenges, injustices, hopes, and joys: Roger Ballen, Nick Brandt, and Jeff Cowen.
Photo BASEL is Switzerland's first art fair dedicated to photography and takes place at the Volkshaus Basel, a recently renovated Art Deco building with a bar, brasserie and beer garden, about a 10-minute walk from the Messeplatz, the central square where Art Basel is held.
WILLAS contemporary takes the stage at
Photo BASEL
We are very proud to announce that Roger Ballen will be one of the featured artists that will represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022, themed "The Milk of Dreams".
The South African stand was conceptualised around the sub-theme of "Into the Light."
Thus, instead of showing photographic prints from his series, "The Theatre of Apparitions", he will alternatively showcase these carefully selected works on lightboxes to accentuate the metaphoric relationship between light and dark.
ROGER BALLEN - Venice Bienale
WILLAS contemporary is pleased to present Nick Brandt: The Day May Break at Oslo Negativ in October. The exhibition comprises of 35 new works, made in 2020, as part of the first in a global series of images portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction.
Photograph: ‘Halima, Abdul and Frida, Kenya-2020’ by Nick Brandt.
NICK BRANDT
— The Day May Break
The focus of the L CAPITAL GROUP collection is contemporary photography created by living artists dealing with the human condition in one way or another. Artworks sourced by WILLAS contemporary.
Building An Art Collection
WILLAS contemporary is pleased to present Roger Ballen and Roger the Rat at Oslo Negativ in October. The work is composed of a series of black and white photographs produced in Johannesburg between 2015 and 2020, accompanied by a video made during the months of confinement.
Photograph: ‘Smoked Out 2020´ by Roger Ballen.
ROGER BALLEN - Roger the Rat
We curated Artists in Support of Human Rights Watch 20 21: 41 works from established and emerging artists commenting on the current state of the world. A truly global, diverse group of artists deploy a variety of mediums, including photography, textile, sculpture, and more.
20 21 Artists in support of Human Rights Watch
A flexible and tailored, full service art programme based on the Glen Bjørnholt Collection, facilitated by WILLAS contemporary for Norway's largest lawyer firm WIKBORG REIN
Full-Service Art Programme
Villa Sofieberg in Stockholm made the cover story in the latest issue of Residence Magazine in Sweden. Placing contemporary art pieces in the carefully restored historical villa from mid 1700 has been an inspiring project and we are pretty pleased with the vibe.
Residence Magazine - as inspiration
The best sushi restaurant in Scandinavia for the past 16 years loves to present photography on its walls. We are proud to be collaborating with ALEX sushi in Oslo on sourcing photography for the restaurant.
Book your table today!
Photography On Walls
Whether you are interested in an artwork for your living room, beginning a collection or augmenting an existing one, WILLAS contemporary can source and recommend photographs based on your specifications. With expertise ranging from emerging artists to established masters, we specialize in photography which is bold yet technically accomplished. Our expertise enables the acquisition of works with value and longevity in addition to resonating with the individual collector.
On Collecting Photography
The WILLAS App
Finding the right art piece for a space can be a challenge. There are so many things to consider - and you might find it difficult to envision the end result.
We decided to make it inspiring and fun; The new WILLAS app allows you to view artwork in your space before you buy. Download the app to your iPad or iPhone to virtually install any art piece from our collection in your home or office.
