GULLRINGSBO 2.0 – Carl Kostyál

Over a decade ago, Erika Hellman founded Gullringsbo Konstsamling. Part of the collection is housed at Gullringsbo Egendomar’s headquarters in central Stockholm. In 2021, and in collaboration with Carl Kostyál, Gullringsbo opened the doors to a major new contemporary art gallery, Hospitalet, located in Nacka– a notorious 18th century former mental asylum that has had many incarnations since ceasing to be a sanitorium in the early part of the last century, including as storage for Stockholm’s national museums during World War II. The classical building overlooks Gamla Stan (the Old Town) and the Royal Park of Djurgården. The space is open to the public with year-round exhibitions. This is the second iteration of the collection of Gullringsbo Konstsamling at Hospitalet.

ALEX DA CORTE (b. 1980, New Jersey) explores the nuances of contemporary life through a multifaceted practice including video, installations, painting and sculptures. Earlier this year Da Corte’s oeuvre was the subject of a major survey exhibition, Mr Remember, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and in 2021 he was commissioned to create a site specific sculpture titled As Long As the Sun Lasts as the Rooftop Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

ALEX ISRAEL (b. 1982, Los Angeles) has, by his use of self-branding, re-invented the genre of self-portraiture and the cult of the artist through the familiar tropes of Hollywood and California and celebrity culture, both faded and present. His institutional solo exhibitions include SP-18 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC (2018) and a major survey at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2016).

ANA BENAROYA (b. 1986, New York) challenges traditional gender norms and art historical conventions in her work by imbuing her female subjects with the monumental physiques and the musculature more commonly found in the male superheroes of the Marvel comics which inspired her. Benaroya had her first solo show, Beneath the Paper Moon, at Hospitalet last year and her work is included in several public collections worldwide include the Alex Katz Foundation in New York and the Zuzeum in Riga.

ANTON ALVAREZ (b. 1980, Stockholm) creates sculptural forms that explore the relationship between craftsmanship and mechanical production. Alvarez’s works has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Millesgården, Stockholm (2022) and Rörstrand’s Museum, Lidköping (2022).

AUSTIN LEE (b. 1983, Las Vegas) is the original post-digitial painter. A technical pioneer, he was one of the first artists to adopt VR in his practice. He uses the Oculus Rift’s ‘Medium’ airbrush as his initial paintbrush and has developed a distinct visual language of whimsical, often tragic-comic figures in his practice. Lee’s work is represented in Moderna Museet’s permanent collection and in 2022 M Woods, Beijing hosted his first institutional solo show ‘Human Nature.

CANYON CASTATOR (b. 1989, Houston) is a latter-day Georg Grosz, making large-scale paintings that satirising our social reality. Bringing together an exuberant blend of figures culled from the internet, modern media, politics and personal experience, nothing and no-one escapes his wicked caricature. Castator’s works have been exhibited in galleries both nationally and internationally, including Carl Kostyál Gallery, London, Library Street Collective, Detroit and The Pit, Los Angeles.

CASPAR FORSBERG (b. 1983, Stockholm) is a sculptor who works primarily in PVC plastic and aluminium to explore the boundaries between different dimensions and materials in a conceptual practice full of wry humour. In 2015, Forsberg received the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Award and his work has been exhibited at Bonnier Konsthall and Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum.

CLAUDIA COMTE (b. 1983, Grancy) creates sculptures and installations that explore the way in which different materials relate to one another. She has had solo exhibitions at the St Louis Contemporary Art Museum and the Cleaveland Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work is represented in several public collections worldwide, including MoMA, New York and the National Suisse Art Collection.

DANIEL BOCCATO (b. 1991, Brazil) is a sculptor working in industrial materials such as concrete, polyester or resin to create forms that are both minimalist and playful. Boccato’s work have been exhibited in galleries including Carl Kostyál Gallery, London, Robot Gallery, Milan and Berthold Pott, Cologne. In 2020 his work was included in the group exhibition ‘Friends, and Friends of Friends’ at the Schlossmuseum, Linz.

FRANCESCA FACCIOLA (b. 1994, New York) paints surreal and darkly witty dreamscapes influenced by popular culture, literature and psychoanalysis. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘One Trick Pony’ Carl Kostyál, London (2021) and ‘This House Knows All That I’ve Done’, CFA Berlin (2022).

GEORG NORDMARK’s (b. 1994, Gothenburg) sculptural practice explores the conceptual and political potential of the various devices and structures used in animal husbandry, finding often disturbing parallels therein with human forms of social control. In 2022 he presented a solo booth with Carl Kostyál at Art Cologne and his work has been exhibited at the Stockholm School of Economics.

GINA BEAVERS (1974, Athens) makes paintings and installations often inspired by images culled from the internet and social media related to the fetishization of consumption and beauty and rendered in high relief in polyurethane expanding foam and acrylic. In 2019, MoMA PS1 opened Beavers’ first solo museum exhibition, Gina Beavers: The Life I Deserve. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the ICA Miami and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

HANNA LIDEN (b. 1976, Stockholm) combines photography and sculpture to explore the iconographies of urban life. She gained widespread recognition in 2015 for her two part public art installation Everything placed in Hudson River and Ruth Wittenberg Plaza Everything in New York commissioned by the Art Production Fund.

HENNING HAMILTON (b. 1978, Gothenburg) is poetic sculptor who works primarily with wood and found objects. His work has been exhibited at Carl Kostyál, Stockholm and Issues Gallery, Stockholm.

HYEGYEONG CHOI (b. 1986, Seoul) paints riotous fantasies of bounty and indulgence that explore subsconscious desire while questioning societal expectations of the normative body. Most recently she has had solo exhibitions Carl Kostyál, London (2023) and Harper’s, Los Angeles (2022) and her work has been reviewed in ArtForum and The New York Times.

KARL NORIN (b. 1982, Fjällbacka) is fascinated by tactile materials such as old rugs and faux fur and he has developed his own technique of rendering found textiles into painterly and photographic abstractions. In 2016 Norin’s work was included in the group exhibition ‘Swedish Art Now’ at Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm.

MAJA DJORDJEVIC (b. 1990, Belgrade) is a painter who combines academic painting techniques with the computer-aided aesthetic of MS Paint. Her tragi-comic female characters lay bare their subconscious desires and fears, rendered neatly in painted pixels. Her work is featured in the collections of the MWoods Museum, Beijing and the Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid.

MARCUS BRUTUS (b. 1991, Silver Spring) is a figurative painter who captures impressionistic scenes of everyday life, focusing on African American lived experience. Brutus’s work has been acquired by the Davis Museum, Wellesley and his painting Bus Stop appears on the cover of the anthology The Movement for Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives, published in September 2021 by Oxford University Press.

MATHIS ALTMANN (b. 1987, Munich) uses assemblage to create sculptures from the detritus of everyday life to comment and reflect on socio-political issues. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include ‘Individuality’ at Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel (2023) and ‘Amalgamate’, Kunstmuseum Wintherthur.

MIA FAITHFULL (b. 1991, London) is a painter who reflects on gender, desire, body-image and the continuing objectification of the female form in the digital realm as source material for her practice. She graduated with an MFA from the Royal Collage of Art, London in 2021 and will have her first solo exhibition with Carl Kostyál in May 2023.

NATHALIE DJURBERG (b. 1978, Lysekil), together with Hans Berg, create psychologically charged animations that dramatise primal emotions of revenge, lust and jealousy. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include A Moon Wrapped in Brown Paper at the Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai, China (2021); Delights of an Undirected Mind at the Baltimore Museum of Art, USA (2018) and A Journey Through Mud and Confusion with Small Glimpses of Air at Modern Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2018). Djurberg’s work is featured in a number of collections around the world, including the Prada Foundation in Milan, Italy and the MoMA in New York, USA.

NINA CANELL (b. 1979, Växsjö) creates sculptures that respond to the environment they are placed in, just as much as they affect the atmosphere around them. Most recently she has had solo exhibitions at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2022) and OGR Torino, Turin (2022). She has also taken part in the Venice, Sydney, Lyon, Gwangju, and Liverpool biennials.

OLI EPP (b. 1994, London) is a painter who works in oil, acrylic and spray paint and has pioneered a genre which he christened “Post-Digital Pop”. In 2021 he curated the exhibition Friends & Friends of Friends at the Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria and his work is featured in several collections worldwide including the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid.

SERGEJ JENSEN (b. 1973, Maglegaard) is mainly known for his lyrical textile compositions, which are made of various materials ranging from burlap and linen to silk and wool. Most recently Jensen has had solo exhibitions at Le Consortium Museum, Dijon (2022) and the Kunsthalle Bern, Germany (2021).