Double Life  

April 16 ‒ May 11, 2019

Planthouse presents Double Life, two concurrent solo shows of new works by Anders Bergstrom and Ruth Lingen.

Completed in 2019, these unique works are a combination of soft ground etching and simultaneous color viscosity monotype. For Bergstrom this new process of viscosity printing was challenging and inspiring, setting in motion a productive moment in his practice. The process offered a freedom to be spontaneous, and the resulting series of prints and objects break new ground for the artist’s work.

Bergstom’s subject, the common brown bag, is familiar to the artist and those who know his work. But there is now a more playful, less reality-based result, allowing this new series to be more colorful, painterly, and thought-provoking.

In representing this common object in modern life, the brown bag, these works are strange and familiar. They inspire thought and wonder at what may have lead up to the moment it was found, pinned, splashed, stained or otherwise altered into its current state. This subject can be interpreted through different lenses: contemporary artifact, utility design object, garbage, ready-made, memory, street detritus, lunch sack, environmental concerns or societal connotations.

About the Artists:

Anders Bergstrom (1971) was born in Tucson, Arizona and has a Bachelor of Arts, Sociology and Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Bergstrom’s work is in the collections of The New York Public Library, University of New Hampshire, Beinecke Library at Yale University, Smith College Museum of Art, MA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Ruth Lingen lives and works in New York City, and she is the director of Line Press Limited, a studio in Brooklyn dedicated to handmade books and prints. In addition, she is a consultant at Pace Prints. Lingen’s work is held in the permanent collections of The New York Public Library, The Getty Research Institute, Walker Art Center, University of Wisconsin, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the St. Louis Art Museum.