EXHIBITION Danelle Bergstrom: Afterglow

Acclaimed Australian-Swedish painter Danelle Bergstrom works in landscape and portraiture as vessels to navigate human emotion. Afterglow, is the artist’s first career survey and traces the interiorscapes of Bergstrom’s own life as they are reflected in the overtures and undertones of her subjects both in landscape and portrait. From major Australian and international sites and figures to the intimate terrain of drawings and sketches, Afterglow presents key works from the last 25 years of the artist’s practice.

For Danelle Bergstrom, painting is an investigation into ‘human emotions, experiences and choices’ where the artist doesn’t paint what she sees, rather what she feels. In her works, Bergstrom replaces ‘the conscious mark by the subconscious reaction’, allowing the painting to determine the direction. While not automatic in nature, it is an intuitive process, allowing the psychological plain to inform the physical terrain of both place and face in her subjects. For the artist, ‘Nature’ moves beyond geographic location, title and position, becoming the internal coordinates of transformative human experience.

Audiences will have the chance to see some of the artist’s major landscapes such as Symphony, Between Two Worlds and the exhibition’s namesake Afterglow, works from Bergstrom’s important Deception series, as well as portraits of iconic national and international figures including Margaret Olley, Nancy Bird Walton, Jack Thompson, Guy Warren as well as the first female president of Finland, former President Tarja Halonen. The exhibition will also include the first-time presentation of works from Åland, a pivotal location in Bergstrom’s personal and professional career, and Hill End where the artist has held both home and studio since 1997.

Danelle Bergstrom has been the recipient of major prizes and awards such as the Archibald Packing Room Prize (2007, 1995); People’s Choice Award, Portia Geach Memorial Award (2013, 2010, 2009, 2006, 2005); and People’s Choice Award, Salon des Refusés. She has been a mutiple finalist in numerous prestigious prizes including the Archibald Prize, Paddington Art Prize, Portia Geach Memorial Award and the Salon des Refusés. Bergstrom has painted over twenty public commissions and her work is held in many important collections including the National Portrait Gallery and National Library in Canberra, The Australian Club, Sydney District Court, Charles Darwin University, Adelaide Justice Department, University of Technology Sydney, Adelaide University, Northern Territory Justice Department and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.