Market Art Fair
Stockholm
May 16-18, 2025

Éva Mag
Moult

Eline Mugaas
Go Gray Gracefully

At Market Art Fair 2025, Galleri Riis is presenting a new sculpture installation by Mag and recent photographic works by Mugaas.

Moult by Éva Mag consists of a group composed from three new polychrome sculptures in aluminium measuring 3-4 meters in hight, welded from small pieces of sheet metal hand-painted by the artist, and a flat textile sculpture, all assembled as a group on a low podium covering a large part of the floor in the booth. The works originate from Mag’s continuous exploration and recycling of textiles, where small pieces of fabric are sewn into new skins for bodies stuffed with clay, often used in her performances, as well as traditional collages or photographic prints.

In nature, moulting signifies renewal. In Mag’s sculptures the rebirth comes with hard, loud beatings and welding. The pieces of metal have to be tailored to fit the next phase of growth dictated by the artworks DNA. The scars resulting from welding the pieces together bear witness to the cost of change and development, but the vivid colours also convey the beauty of each individual part in the creation of a new body.

Eline Mugaas is interested in the conversation between images, and how the reading of one image can be changed by the addition of another. She will present a series of six works from her artist book Go Gray Gracefully (Dyslexic Times, 2017), which consists of images lifted from pre-digital photography manuals and (the artists’ own) graying hair, in a goodbye to the analogue photography she used in her earlier works, and a hello to her own graying hair.

Four works from the recent series Pillow (2022) explore the role of women seen though the history of art, focusing on lifting, carrying and supporting. Looking at Greek sculpture, Mugaas has honed in on pillows supporting seated figures on a marble throne, and by framing and colour highlighting, she has changed the focus of these well known sculptures.

She will also present the new three-part work Splay, an appropriation of an image from Swedish photograper Carl Jacob Malmberg’s gymnastics series (ca. 1875), where a workout routine involving three men is transformed into a birth scene.

Éva Mag (RO/SE – 1979) has over the last years focused on performance, scenography and site-specific installations comprising works made of textiles, clay and steel. Recent projects include a large group of ceramic sculptures and a suite of photographs. Last year she completed a public art project for Stockholm Konst in Skärholmen, consisting of three groups of monumental and brightly painted sculptures in aluminium, inspired by her ongoing work with textile collages.

Eline Mugaas (NO – 1969) is primarily known for her work within an extended field of photography, and has recently made exhibitions combining film, sculpture and photography in multifaceted installations. Her ideas span a variety of interests, and her photographs are concerned with light, texture, space and place in a broad sense. Images are captured from domestic interiors and urban spaces, and sourced from books, various magazines and printed matter.

Kindly supported by OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway