Hidden Beings (2014)
There is intimate tension and quiet suspense in the new paintings and drawings by Sara-Vide Ericson. We are in the woods, in the borderland between culture and nature. In beautiful and eerie tableaus Ericson takes us on a tightrope walk between the conscious and subconscious. In the painting Being Obvious (Oil on Canvas, 135 x 110 cm, 2014) a girl exits a shed shoeless in the woods, she is startled, her body caught in attentive movement. A harsh bright light hits her jacket and tears into the fibres of the jacket, canvas and her very being. You can sense she feels a threat and the more you study the painting you realize that you could be that threat. As a viewer it is unsettling to feel the transition from passive voyeur to potential threat.
In all the new works in Hidden Beings, 10 paintings and 7 drawings, Ericson lets the viewer come close. Too close for complacent comfort. As a viewer you are either confronted by the situation or placed directly in it. The scenarios feels familiar and yet uncanny. Like a shared dream or a déjàvu. She tabs into the common uncommon. Into the darker areas of our imagination. Into the wild. The people that inhabit the paintings are both strong and fragile. At once at peace with nature and confronted by its humbling force. Nature is not a romantic environment, it is simply nature. Sara-Vide Ericson explores these different dichotomies thoroughly in the new body of work, a complicated negotiation of passion, ego, contemporary society, periphery, sense of loss, innocence, myth and empowerment.

V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
www.v1gallery.com

While Unconscious (2012)
The series "While Unconscious" puts focus on the individual and examines our autonomy in relation to our subconsciousness. The paintings are set in existing landscapes that should indicate places where the conscious and subconscious convene.
Collective human dream patterns and archaic symbols have been used as guidelines in these paintings. Lust, beauty and self-confidence are as loud as the vulnerability, brutality and loneliness.

Read more about "While Unconscious": www.gallerimagnuskarlsson.com