SIGRID SANDSTRÖM: DUSK

Perrotin Tokyo is pleased to present Dusk by Swedish artist Sigrid Sandström, which marks the artist's first solo exhibition in Japan and second with the gallery.

January 17 - March 22, 2025

For Swedish artist Sigrid Sandström, dusk is less an hour than a condition—a moment where light folds in on itself, withdrawing just enough to leave space for something more meaningful to emerge. It’s also the fitting title for her second solo exhibition with Perrotin, this time in Tokyo. The paintings in Dusk are veiled in a glaucous, furtive sheen, as if illuminated by a sun long past the curvature of sight. Blues and charcoal greys dissolve into hazy, wistful tones, pulling the viewer into a slower, more pensive timescape.

Shaped in part by her childhood in the Nordic wilderness, Sandström has long been fascinated by dusk, in its literal and metaphorical dimensions. Nestled in nature, her family’s cabin stood on roadless land without electricity or running water. It was a refuge, a place for family holidays and to practice an intentional life of lighting stoves, chopping firewood, drawing water from the well, following an imposed rhythm, a slowing of the passage of time. This analog existence, where candlelight and kerosene lamps flickered as the only light source and mundane movements demanded care, continues to inform much of Sandström’s sensibility.

This interplay between illumination and shadow aligns with Sandström’s approach to painting, where she often turns her canvases around, using the back as a diffused screen. The results are layered works that speak to memory and presence— impressions of an image rather than its stark actuality. Amnesia (2024), one such “verso” painting, subtly resembles the textured skin of a raisin, a patina of the bath of vibrant liquid pigment that must be on canvas’ other side. These paintings, like the delicate wicks of a vegetable-wax candle twinkling through a Japanese paper lantern, are understated. Though, enchanting.

Sandström’s distinctive technique—melding printmaking, paint stains, arcing brushstrokes, and occasional oil sticks—imbues her works with a sense of flux. Within the exhibition, her paintings converse with one another, swirling and settling like liquid in motion.