Nadja Wedin has become known among interior design enthusiasts as a stylish pattern designer thanks to her many popular collections that she has created for Hemtex since 2014 when the first, "House Sparrow" , was launched.
She has been called both " interior design's answer to Lill-Babs " and " Josef Frank stuck on drugs ". The former refers to the fact that Nadja Wedin's designs have become almost popular, her collections quickly sell out in stores and the included mugs have become somewhat of a collector's item for many when a new seasonal collection is launched.
The second description has more to do with what the patterns look like. Often detailed, teeming ink drawings are the basis for what then results in harmonious patterns.
At Penseln och Järnet, she exhibits some of the original drawings that served as inspiration for some of her designs.
But in this her first major solo exhibition, above all, you are given the chance to see a completely different side of the artist Nadja Wedin.
--Because I mostly worked with pattern design in recent years, my painting has fallen into the background, says Nadja Wedin. It was only on vacation a few years ago that I had time to pick out canvases and start painting, and then I realized how much I had missed it.
It was the start of an intense period of experimentation between different styles and techniques, which has now resulted in an exhibition.
The works on display are mainly acrylic paintings, made in a completely different manner to the detailed fabric patterns. Or several manners should be said, because Nadja Wedin is an impatient artist. Both abstract and concrete motifs are shown here.
- If I get an idea, I try it for a while, but then I get tired and want to try something new, says Nadja Wedin.
--At first I thought of even calling the exhibition Spret, because I have such a hard time defining what I actually do. But everything starts from the desire to paint, so it could also be called Lust.
For a while, the working title of the exhibition was "Acrylic, marker and little alcohol". The name refers to a technique she used when she created a number of the paintings. The spirit, which is therefore not drunk, is dripped more or less randomly onto different colored layers of marker and then displaces the colour. In the patterns that are created, the inspiration for the motifs is then born.
The fact that the exhibition ended up being called "Bird, fish and a little in between" has to do with the motifs of many of the paintings. Because the choice of motifs is still inspired by nature, albeit in a different way than in the detailed patterns she otherwise creates.
The exhibition "Bird, Fish and something in between" ran from July 16 to September 3, 2022. Most of the works are for sale in the gallery and in the online store.
Which is your favorite among Nadja's paintings?
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