Shatto Gallery is pleased to announce GRAIN, a solo exhibition featuring wooden sculptures by artist Anna Erneholm. Anna Erneholm’s sculptures are abstract and figurative, in a continual search and development of the language of form. The works featured in GRAIN balances forms that are fluid and lyrical through a process that is physical and time consuming. Using heavy machinery that utilizes intimidating power, Erneholm finishes with a soft repetition of smoothing with sandpaper. 

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Erneholm maneuvers around knots of tree trunks to form negative spaces and specific forms–characterizing her openness to organic traits of the whole wood trunk. Such traits can also be seen in her works Olive via Olive wood and Liv via Carob wood. The resulting pattern is a result derived from a negotiation of the wood’s characteristics with the artist’s visioned form.

 

In contrast, Erneholm’s latest work Vi is a continuation of her latest experiments with carving sculptures out of blocks formed from glued industrial sheets of pine wood. In Vi, Erneholm’s control of the form and the patterns of the industrial-made-straight grain is more imbued with intention. Rather than relying on chance due to restrictions placed upon her, Vi portrays complete manipulation of the wood medium and the result of two years of work.

 

Wooden sculptures are works of subtraction. What Erneholm takes away from the material, she replaces with time and dedication in production. GRAIN is a conversation between Erneholm and the medium of wood: A manipulation that happens between the artist and their material, vice versa, in the visualized movements in artwork’s form. GRAIN will be on view from February 19 to March 19, 2022.

 

Anna Erneholm grew up in Sweden and studied art and architecture at the Chalmers University of Technology and the Art Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden before relocating to California. At her studio at Angels Gate Cultural Center she works mainly in wood, stone, clay, and bronze. The language of Anna's sculptures is influenced by the natural landscapes of the Swedish archipelago and rock formations in the western American deserts, especially Joshua Tree National park.