I went to a gallery exhibition recently which was featuring the late artist, Pia Thelander. A group of friends had also joined my for the exhibition, and I remember chuckling as I gave them a tour around and told them how I felt like one of those group leaders in a museum or something. We started off by the table which sat two pictures of the late artist herself. From one of the pictures Pia looked like a total badass, and the other she just had a huge smile on her face. I would remember these pictures and what she exuded while looking at her art. The remainder of the tour (as in, the rest of it than the very beginning) was a shuffle of people throughout the large space which was full from floor to ceiling of bright colours and loud, in your face prints and paintings. A section of these paintings focused on her love of the "Cans" print. Later I would listen to her husband tell the story of how Pia was particularly drawn to aluminum cans that had been run over by cars on their travels abroad. The two of them would walk around with bags of these cans, just to take back home with the sole intention of printing them.
During days when the gallery is relatively quiet, and I am working on my own work, it is really great to be surrounded by such color and in your face art. It's inspiring, and from certain works (such as those with paragraphs of handwritten notes and huge collages of word prints) one can look again and again and find a new grouping of words, or see a hidden print in the collage which you didn't notice before. Pia is still there in her work, and she's still saying something.
The exhibition is available to see until March 7th at Societé KSK in Gallerian, Västerås.
