Susanne Gottberg: Still Still

Susanne Gottberg’s new paintings vibrate on multiple human frequencies, even as they reach toward something just beyond our grasp. At times they invite a quiet, intimate presence; at others they call on the viewer to lean in and listen more intently. Her works speak of what they are – and gesture toward what they cannot be alone, much as we humans depend on one another for meaning. Confronted with Gottberg’s paintings, one becomes aware of how an artwork can seem to possess its own gaze, how it can look back at us. The painting becomes an intermediary, a threshold through which something may or may not pass. The encounter unfolds on the picture plane – a surface that exists simultaneously in the physical world and beyond it.

Gottberg’s practice is an exploration of spatiality in all its layers. At the heart of this exhibition is painting itself – or, more precisely, the painted object – composed of touch, materials, and accumulated gestures. All these elements ultimately return to the human: to how a surface feels, what it reveals, and what warmth it radiates. Gottberg paints paintings of paintings. Each work generates its own space, echoing itself and merging with the room in which the viewer stands. The painting asserts its physical presence while simultaneously deepening the space it contains, sparking a dialogue between the image, the space depicted within it, and the surrounding reality.

In some works, Gottberg finishes the surface by sanding it – a gesture that at once fractures and opens up space. In others, she polishes the waxy layers, enriching their tones and sheltering the surface as if it were skin – a delicate boundary that, like a painting, exists between inner and outer worlds. A similar layered poetics defines her works on wood. Here, the wood is not merely a support; it is an active participant, holding the object and shaping the space within which the painting unfolds.

Susanne Gottberg (b. 1964) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1989. She received the Finnish Art Society’s Ducat Award in 1991 and was named Young Artist of the Year in 1994. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions across Europe, and her works are held in several major museum collections, among them the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, the Saastamoinen Foundation, and the Trondheim Art Museum.