In an exceptional space, Gus Gallery opened its doors last March in Stockholm. The exclusive location of the gallery, which operates with the support of the Robert Weil Family Foundation, is a two-storey, 40 square metre space in Norra Djurgården within the Royal National City Park, one of the national parks still owned by the Swedish royal family.
“An opportunity arose to use this unique location and I thought it would be a wonderful challenge and an opportunity to add something special to the Stockholm gallery scene,” says Gustaf Kjellinu, founder of Gus Gallery and independent curator, who has collaborations with Swedish companies and institutions to his credit, including curating the exhibition Snowcrash at the Nationalmuseum (2021), the book Design & Peace by the Alvar Aalto Foundation (2019) and the book Helt Vildt! – The Second Golden Age of Danish Design, published by Summit (2018).
“Since the gallery is not located in Stockholm’s art district, we cannot compete under the same conditions, which means we have the opportunity to create our own routines and try new things. The journey to the gallery in the Royal National City Park, gradually leaving the noise of the city behind, mentally prepares the visitor for the visit. Since the gallery occupies the entire house, and there are no businesses nearby, only the forest, it offers visitors a rare moment to fully immerse themselves in the works on display. So instead of being big and dense, we are small and focused.”
“The aim of the gallery,” Gustaf Kjellin continues, “is to develop, document and exhibit projects that offer new perspectives on our present and our future.” Since its opening in March 2023, the gallery has hosted two exhibitions: “Sherwood and Odysseus” (20 March – 22 April 2023) and “Summer exhibition” (5 June – 8 July 2023), while in September the gallery will introduce a new collaboration and exhibition with Icelandic designer Garðar Eyjólfsson. “Currently,” the curator points out, “the gallery collaborates with two designers, Uglycute and Charlotte von der Lancken, as well as devoting itself to the collection and sale of the Snowcrash collection (1997-2003).”
The summer exhibition, which runs until 8 July, offers different attitudes towards the future and the power of graphic expressions. A collection of photographs, vintage furniture, gallery pieces and art prints, all tied together in various ways. Like the photograph of Le Corbusier’s monastery La Tourette (1960), taken by Swedish photographer Åke E:son Lindman, where the geometric concrete ‘canons à lumière’ are in focus, and like the 3D-printed Lattice pendant lamp by Swedish designer Charlotte von der Lancken. Born in 1978, Charlotte von der Lancken was a member of the Front collective and then opened her own studio, CVDLAB, in 2015.
The work of the architecture and design studio Uglycute was the focus of the gallery’s first exhibition, “Sherwood and Odysseus”. Founded in 1999 by Markus Degerman (artist), Andreas Nobel (interior designer), Jonas Nobel (artist) and Fredrik Stenberg (architect), Uglycute emerged as a reaction to the then prevailing homologised climate of Swedish design, creating objects that challenged the norms of taste and contributed to renewing the definition of design in the Scandinavian context. Since 2010, Uglycute has consisted of Jonas Nobel (1970) and Fredrik Stenberg (1971).
For the exhibition in the gallery, the studio created a table and a chaise longue based on two restaurant interiors they created. In particular, the Sherwood metal table dates back to 2015, when Uglycute made the interiors of Woodstockholm, a showroom and restaurant in Södermalm, Stockholm. When the restaurant’s chambre séparée needed a door for wine storage, Uglycute revisited the standard glass door with bonded metal handles. Inspired by the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont (1867) in Paris and the ‘faux bois’ (fake wood) technique, Uglycute carved a handle imitating a screw, which was then cast in aluminium. The handle thus gave rise to the idea of creating an entire table that manifested the aesthetic potential of relief or ‘high relief’, as opposed to the prevailing rational and smooth surface.
The chaise longue, on the other hand, originated from a project in 2022, when Uglycute designed the interior of the speakeasy attached to the Bananas restaurant in Södermalm, Stockholm. The bar was clad with carved wooden panels treated with plaster, lacquer and wax to imitate aged bronze. The same process was used to make a reclining chair on a metal base, which has an indefinable surface.
