Layers of landscapes overlap in a video by Finnish artist Tia Keobounpheng. Discovered within the final room of the gallery at Scandinavia Home, “WAYFIND” (2023) acts as a self-portrait, a seek for ancestry and homeland after she found her Sámi heritage. The 24 artists in Nordic Echoes – Custom in Modern Artwork additionally interrogate inventive sources: All dwell within the Higher Midwest (a area outlined as North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Higher Peninsula of Michigan) however keep on traditions from Nordic artwork. As curator Sally Yerkovich described to me throughout a tour, the exhibition is “grounded in Nordic traditions, but it’s not traditional.” Whereas not all of the artists within the exhibition are of Nordic descent, all draw inspiration from it.
These works are new interpretations of traditions which have typically been handed down so seamlessly that some forgot when or how they realized a selected talent. On view, as an example, are many types of the Norwegian custom of Rosemaling, and Minnesota-based Tara Austin reinterprets the signature ornamentation of the Swedish Dala horse as translucent swirls in her acrylic-and-paint “Dala Horse (large, medium, small)” (undated). These modern interpretations provide a means for artists to acknowledge their roots whereas constructing new types, and every work opens up portals into different lineages.
Left: Karen Rebholz, “Carolyn,” hardanger fiddle (2020), mom of pearl, bone, silver; proper: Beth Kraus, “Guinea Pig Carrier” (undated), birchbark with discovered carved wooden
Even the supplies inform tales: reindeer antlers; buffalo conceal; small items of wooden that have been altered by a rescued cockatoo, tucked into sterling silver jewellery. A few of these supplies have been remodeled with performance in thoughts, equivalent to John Frandy’s impressively intricate “Mantle Clock with crows (5) and pendulum” and his “Footstool” (each undated), embellished with fairytale-like silhouettes. Different interventions are extra inventive and summary, equivalent to Lisa Wiitala’s sequence of Finnish ryijy; or Elizabeth Belz’s massive metallic moth and mosquito sculptures “Plume Moth” and “Dragon Butterfly” (each 2024). Many works in Nordic Echoes talk a connection to nature, particularly fauna and flora native to their Higher Midwest environments. Beth Kraus, as an example, crafted a guinea pig provider from birch bark. There are two tiny holes the place its toes would have been protruding, and chunk marks nonetheless seen on edges the place it seemingly gnawed. One can think about the fuzzy creature with beady eyes peering from her woven enclosure.
The artists on this exhibition recommend that conventional objects can have a resonance past their authentic type, and that they are often tailored to a neighborhood setting with regional supplies and nonetheless be a part of a Nordic conventional inventive lineage. As Yerkovich requested throughout her walkthrough, “How do we keep these traditional skills alive, that might inspire the continuity of the tradition, rather than being left in someone’s grandmother’s cabinet?” Certainly, this present will quickly journey to many extra museums within the Higher Midwest, which could simply encourage the subsequent era of those artists.
Robin Baird Carlson, “Skinnfell, or Skin Blanket” (undated), buffalo conceal, wool tapestry
Left: Nate White, “Snibskål altar” (undated), basswood, milk paint burnished with metal wool; proper: Teresa Faris, “CWaB: Place #1” (undated), sterling silver, wooden altered by a chook, leaves, silk and “CWaB: Place #8,” (undated), sterling silver, thulite, wooden altered by a chook
Mike Loeffler, “Contemporary Goose” (2024), quaking aspen
Set up view of works by Peter “Pekka” Olson 
Element view of Pieper Bloomquist, “Silver Linings” (undated), egg tempera paint on linen
John Frandy, “Footstool,” (undated), cedar, fabric, paint
Set up view of labor by Tia Keobounpheng
Nordic Echoes — Custom in Modern Artwork continues at Scandinavia Home (58 Park Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan) by way of August 2. The exhibition was curated by Sally Yerkovich with Olivia Dodd. The exhibition will later journey to the South Dakota Artwork Museum, Brookings, South Dakota; American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Vesterheim, Decorah, Iowa; Plains Artwork Museum, Fargo, North Dakota; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Artwork Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; and De Vos Artwork Museum, Marquette, Michigan.
