Artist: Astrid Kajsa Nylander
Exhibition title: minijobs
Venue: PAGE (NYC), New York, US
Date: November 14, 2020 – January 10, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Page, New York
Page is pleased to present minijobs, the New York debut of Stockholm-based Astrid Kajsa Nylander. This series of paintings mines a canon of female artists—Yayoi Kusama, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Judy Chicago, Bridget Riley, and the Swedish post-war painter Barbro Östlihn—for a more democratic approach to art making, in which the limited confines of “good” taste are transgressed in favor of vibrant colors that communicate directly with the viewer on a physiological and cerebral level. It’s an attitude that is particularly inspired by proponents of Op Art whose non-focal, non-referential canvases appealed to the senses of its audience and, as such, could be understood by all.
While Nylander doesn’t aspire to the mind bending effects of optical illusion, the Saint Petersburg-style hang of her paintings similarly overwhelms, while her motifs, buttons threaded through with looping stitches, use trompe l’oeil techniques that momentarily trick the eye. But rather than attempting to impress with their virtuosity, Nylander’s works underscore the accessibility of illusion, provoking the “cultivated” viewer’s learned aversion to retinal titillations, which have long been deemed unfashionable. Nylander’s unconventionally shaped canvases, more at home in a craft store than a contemporary art gallery, also gleefully refuse painterly sophistication. Even the exhibition and series title, minijobs, self-consciously refers to the works’ diminutive size, playing off the gendered myths of the lady amateur and her delicately rendered paintings—of buttons, no less.
—Chloe Stead
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, minijobs, 2020, exhibition view, PAGE (NYC), New York
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, lemon-yellow minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 14.5 x 13.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, cherry-red minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 11.75 x 8 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, silver minijob, 2019, Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, yellow minijob #4, 2019, Oil on canvas, 8 x 8 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, violet minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 14.5 x 8.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, peach minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 10.5 x 11.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, green minijob #3, 2019, Oil on canvas, 4 x 4 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, silver minijob, 2019, Oil on canvas, 4 x 4 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, ultramarine minijob #3, 2019, Oil on canvas, 11.75 x 8 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, beige minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 13 x 6.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, dotted minijob, 2019, Oil on canvas, 7 x 8 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, green minijob #4, 2020, Oil on linen, 12 x 13 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, brown minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 13 x 10.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, red minijob #2, 2020, Oil on linen, 13.5 x 5.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, variegated minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 11.75 x 8 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, turquoise minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 8.25 x 8.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, green minijob #5, 2020, Oil on linen, 13.5 x 5.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, lavender minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 11.25 x 11.25 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, black and green minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 15.5 x 15.25 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, black glowing minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 10 x 10.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, pink and blue minijob, 2019, Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, chequered minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 14.75 x 13.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, chequered minijob #2, 2020, Oil on linen, 10.25 x 11.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, ultramarine minijob #4, 2020, Oil on linen, 11.5 x 12.5 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, fuschia minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 9.75 x 9.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, mint-green minijob, 2020, Oil on linen, 14 x 14.75 inches
Astrid Kajsa Nylander, pink minijob #4, 2020, Oil on linen, 10.25 x 11 inches