Austin Lee & Mark Thomas Gibson
American Psyche
11th June – 11th July 2021
Carl Kostyál Gallery at Hospitalet, Stockholm, Sweden
General opening times:
Thursday–Friday 12–6pm
Saturday–Sunday 12–4pm
Book your visit with stockholm@kostyal.com
American Psyche is a two-person show featuring paintings by artists Austin Lee (b. 1983, Las Vegas) and Mark Thomas Gibson (b. 1980, Miami) presented by Carl Kostyál Gallery at Hospitalet in Stockholm.
The paintings in American Psyche have developed after a tumultuous year in the United States with history unfolding as the show was being planned. Austin Lee and Mark Thomas Gibson take on different approaches to how directly the outside world is visible in their works. Both artists have created their own visual language and approach to making art that reflects their own personal and emotional experience through the language of painting.
Gibson explains “I think it is important to take two artists living through the same moment where race, class, politics and health (mental/physical) are directly on the table. The shows that typically ask these questions generally operate in separate hermetically sealed vacuums where race and gender construction is the price of the ticket for entry. Often the entry that ticket provides bolsters predetermined outcomes in the associations of the work presented. Rarely do we have time or are we asked to present work that may work to complicate our pre affirmed understanding of art”.
The horse is present in both artists’ works and is a motif that goes back throughout art history. The shared subject helps highlight each artist’s unique approach, Lee’s horses evoke emotion and mindspace while Gibson uses storytelling to put his horses to work, assigning them roles like actors in a play. The show is an opportunity to not only look at individual works but also to reflect on different approaches to painting and how it is intertwined with experience and consciousness.
Hospitalet art space is a collaboration between Carl Kostyál Gallery and Gullringsbo Konstsamling. Hospitalet is located in the central atrium of what was once the infamous mental asylum known as Danviks Hospital. Designed by the architect Göran Josuæ Adelcrantz and completed in 1725, it housed not only those considered mentally unstable but also many whose political views were considered inconvenient. Often referenced in 18th century literature, most notably in Fältskärns berättelser by Zacharias Topelius in the 1780s, Danviken was used in common parlance as a synonym for the mad house.
Directions to Hospitalet: SL commuter boat 80, departs from Nybroplan and arrives Saltsjöqvarn. Journey takes 16 minutes. Walk to the right when you get off, for about 100 m. By car or taxi: Drive to the end of Saltsjöqvarns Kaj, via the tunnel coming from Henriksdal.
Hospitalet Stockholm comes up in Google Maps. Very limited parking in front of Hospitalet.
Coming from Södermalm: Walk from Henriksdal bus stops or Londonviadukten/Danviksbron. Address: Hospitalet, Sjökvarnsbacken 15131 71 Nacka
Photo: Viktor Fordell; © the artist. Copyright Carl Kostyál