June 17 - September 30
Dressed in art
When 1800th-century artists went to Dalarna to depict the picturesque valley people, the parish costume was in focus. There were national romantic idealizations but also cool women who smoke pipes. During the 1900th century, both Salvation Army soldiers and the occasional physiotherapist were depicted in parish garb.
Old lady with a pipe, painted by Sam Uhrdin
September 15 - November 12
Karin Ferner - EXTRA EVERYTHING and a little more - Lad, slims and crowns in a spirit of recycling
An exhibition of jewelery and objects with renewal and reuse of colour, form, feeling, tradition and beauty. All with an unfailing focus on Dalarna.
Photo: Ingela Sannesjö
30 September – 5 November
Shine Again
Nysta - History, contemporary, future is a project developed by Art Promotion Dalarna together with Dalarna museum and is built on our separate interests in and ongoing deepening in textiles and textile production. The museum stands with its archive and collections for the transmission of the textile's historical heritage, while Art Promotion's involvement is in contemporary art.
In the central part of the project, we have invited the artist Jenny Bergman to a work stay in order to find a contemporary art perspective on the historical material she encounters at the site by taking part in the activities that take place daily at the museum. Her work is presented in the exhibition Åter Stråla in the art gallery with opening on September 30.
In parallel with the exhibition, we present a program that looks towards the future. We are facing what is called a green transition in society where a great responsibility is left to the individual to adapt to new ways of living more sustainably. But do we really have all the knowledge we need to do this? With the program items, we hope to contribute to increased awareness of textiles, its problematic production, but above all to inspire how relatively easy and fun it is to make good choices in everyday life.
December 16 - January 20
DALA ART
Dalarnas Art Association's annual jury-judged exhibition.
Temporary exhibitions 2024
17 February – 14 April 2024
"The black ruthless soul of work" - JOHAN AHLBÄCK paintings, drawings and graphics
Johan Ahlbäck, 1895-1973
He was born into a working class family in small circumstances where the father was a rolling mill worker. Already as an 8-year-old, he had to help in the rolling mill both before and after school. After elementary school, he became a full-time employee at the plant. Still a child, but expected to do the work of an adult.
The hard work and lack of nutrition caused Johan's body to wear out and the mill's doctor urged him to quit the work. But there was no other work to be had in Smedjebacken.
By chance he heard about a different way of life: he became a vegetarian and began to build up his body with strength training.
Johan had a burning interest in drawing. At that time, however, it was completely unthinkable that a rolling mill worker would be able to train as an artist. But Johan's talent and great interest could not be stopped and after 14 years in the rolling mill he broke up to learn the artist's profession from the ground up.
He moved to Stockholm and began studying at Carl Wilhelmson's painting school in 1922 and then from 1925 he began his studies at the Art Academy. After completing his studies and notable exhibitions in Stockholm, he returned to Smedjebacken in 1931. He longed to return home, to nature, and wanted to rediscover his world of motifs.
He has been called "the painter of work" and Johan himself has expressed that he wanted to paint "the black ruthless soul of work", nothing artificial or added but only as it was, "not beautiful but immutably true".
Johan drew, painted and etched the toils and toils of work like no one else. Over five decades, he created thousands of images from Bergslagen's industries. His pictures contain commitment, social pathos, deep humanity and show us a Sweden that once was.
17 February – 14 April 2024
We who work with our bodies
Two million people in Sweden have manual labor.
If the manual workers do not go to work, Sweden will stop.
People who work with their bodies are rarely seen and heard in today's media, in the news feed, in museums, in our common public spaces.
Annica Carlsson Berdahl and photographer Elisabeth Ohlson have traveled in Sweden, from Kiruna in the north to Malmö in the south, and interviewed, photographed and filmed people who are industrial workers, shop assistants, nurses, cleaners, restaurant employees, warehouse workers with the ambition to portray a part of today's working class .
In the exhibition, we meet 33 workers, with different backgrounds, experiences and ages, who generously talk about how they feel at work.
The project We who work with our bodies is a collaboration between Rot produktion, ABF, LO and Länsmuseet Gävleborg and with the support of the Workers' Movement Cultural Fund and the Västra Götaland region.
