Layers of landscapes overlap in a video by Finnish artist Tia Keobounpheng. Discovered within the final room of the gallery at Scandinavia Home, “WAYFIND” (2023) acts as a self-portrait, a seek for ancestry and homeland after she found her Sámi heritage. The 24 artists in Nordic Echoes – Custom in Modern Artwork additionally interrogate inventive sources: All reside within the Higher Midwest (a area outlined as North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Higher Peninsula of Michigan) however stick with it traditions from Nordic artwork. As curator Sally Yerkovich described to me throughout a tour, the exhibition is “grounded in Nordic traditions, but it’s not traditional.” Whereas not all of the artists within the exhibition are of Nordic descent, all draw inspiration from it.
These works are new interpretations of traditions which have generally been handed down so seamlessly that some forgot when or how they discovered a selected ability. On view, as an example, are many types of the Norwegian custom of Rosemaling, and Minnesota-based Tara Austin reinterprets the signature ornamentation of the Swedish Dala horse as translucent swirls in her acrylic-and-paint “Dala Horse (large, medium, small)” (undated). These up to date interpretations provide a approach for artists to acknowledge their roots whereas constructing new types, and every work opens up portals into different lineages.
Left: Karen Rebholz, “Carolyn,” hardanger fiddle (2020), mom of pearl, bone, silver; proper: Beth Kraus, “Guinea Pig Carrier” (undated), birchbark with discovered carved wooden
Even the supplies inform tales: reindeer antlers; buffalo disguise; small items of wooden that had been altered by a rescued cockatoo, tucked into sterling silver jewellery. A few of these supplies had been remodeled with performance in thoughts, akin to John Frandy’s impressively intricate “Mantle Clock with crows (5) and pendulum” and his “Footstool” (each undated), embellished with fairytale-like silhouettes. Different interventions are extra inventive and summary, akin to Lisa Wiitala’s collection of Finnish ryijy; or Elizabeth Belz’s giant metallic moth and mosquito sculptures “Plume Moth” and “Dragon Butterfly” (each 2024). Many works in Nordic Echoes talk a connection to nature, particularly fauna and flora native to their Higher Midwest environments. Beth Kraus, as an example, crafted a guinea pig provider from birch bark. There are two tiny holes the place its toes would have been protruding, and chew marks nonetheless seen on edges the place it seemingly gnawed. One can think about the fuzzy creature with beady eyes peering from her woven enclosure.
The artists on this exhibition recommend that conventional objects can have a resonance past their authentic kind, and that they are often tailored to an area setting with regional supplies and nonetheless be a part of a Nordic conventional inventive lineage. As Yerkovich requested throughout her walkthrough, “How do we keep these traditional skills alive, that might inspire the continuity of the tradition, rather than being left in someone’s grandmother’s cabinet?” Certainly, this present will quickly journey to many extra museums within the Higher Midwest, which could simply encourage the following technology of those artists.
Robin Baird Carlson, “Skinnfell, or Skin Blanket” (undated), buffalo disguise, wool tapestry
Left: Nate White, “Snibskål altar” (undated), basswood, milk paint burnished with metal wool; proper: Teresa Faris, “CWaB: Place #1” (undated), sterling silver, wooden altered by a hen, leaves, silk and “CWaB: Place #8,” (undated), sterling silver, thulite, wooden altered by a hen
Mike Loeffler, “Contemporary Goose” (2024), quaking aspen
Set up view of works by Peter “Pekka” Olson 
Element view of Pieper Bloomquist, “Silver Linings” (undated), egg tempera paint on linen
John Frandy, “Footstool,” (undated), cedar, fabric, paint
Set up view of labor by Tia Keobounpheng
Nordic Echoes — Custom in Modern Artwork continues at Scandinavia Home (58 Park Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan) via August 2. The exhibition was curated by Sally Yerkovich with Olivia Dodd. The exhibition will later journey to the South Dakota Artwork Museum, Brookings, South Dakota; American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Vesterheim, Decorah, Iowa; Plains Artwork Museum, Fargo, North Dakota; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Artwork Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; and De Vos Artwork Museum, Marquette, Michigan.
