Solo Exhibition at Skal Contemporary, Skagen, Denmark
2024.10.11–2024.12.07
Exhibition Text Skal Contemporary
The nature around us is changeable. It is sometimes difficult to grasp it and we can feel distanced from it, perhaps because most of us do not fully understand its cyclical and complex nature. At the same time we live in a time where it is absolutely necessary that we start to understand the world around us and our role in it. In these years we must reflect on today’s questions about humanity’s relationship with nature, which is a complex task for an individual who is simply part of the mass we call humanity. But we can start somewhere. We can start by approaching our surroundings with an observing and inquisitive look, searching for something familiar, and trying to understand the world around us.
Run to the horizon is a newly produced exhibition by Fredrik Åkum and an artistic investigation of what is outside ourselves: the terrain, the surroundings, and nature. The exhibition takes form as an intuitive investigation that works across media such as photography, drawing, painting, and relief in a caring and curious mapping of the connections in the world.
Through observation, documentation recollection and by drawing inspiration from the changing landscapes by Skagen, Fredrik Åkum creates a pictorial and poetic universe in which we can try to create new connections to our surroundings and where there is room for both longing and curiosity. Run to the horizon is thus an artistic study of time and change and a space filled with sensuous snapshots of the world around us as a concrete albeit fragmentary reflection in both time and space.
Through neat and controlled observations, visual diary entries, and with room for changeability, Fredrik Åkum invites us to approach the world we live in with a playful and curious look. A look that can lead us to something familiar or something new and to a place that contains great poetic power in relation to today’s big questions about man’s relationship with nature and the pending climate and biodiversity crisis.
Fredrik Åkum (SE) lives and works in Gothenburg. Fredrik Åkum graduated from Akademin Valand in Gothenburg (2013) and Run to the horizon is his first solo exhibition in Denmark. Fredrik Åkum’s practice is characterized by visual experiments and poetic distinctions with a strong anchoring in a playful and intuitive visual practice. His work often takes the form of an exploration of abstract qualities, where the core is the various trials and experiments, which constantly aim for something unattainable across media such as photography, drawing, painting, and sculptural forming of objects.
Run to the horizon is curated by Anne Møller Christensen and Sara Løvschall Grøntved and is kindly supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, Augustinusfonden, 15. Juni Fonden, Ny Carlsbergfondet, William Demant Fonden, and the Municipality of Frederikshavn.
