Galerie Nordenhake (SE/DE/MX)

Galerie Nordenhake is a contemporary art gallery with spaces in Stockholm, Berlin and Mexico City. Founded by Claes Nordenhake in 1976, in Malmö, Sweden and run with partners Ben Loveless, Sten Nordenhake, Toni Sadurní, and Claudia Sorhage, the gallery promotes the practice of intellectually engaging and diverse artists. It is recognized for its sustained representation of artists, nurturing their practice and working collaboratively with institutions and galleries to enhance their visibility.

Lützengatan 1
115 20 Stockholm
Sweden
+46 8 21 18 92

stockholm@nordenhake.com
nordenhake.com

Contact gallery

Curated for
CHART

Galerie Nordenhake presents a duo presentation featuring the Swedish artist Thea Ekström (1920–1988) and Mattias Selldén (b. 1986). Positioned in the ambiguous space between furniture and sculpture, Selldén's objects challenge conventional expectations of function and form. Their playful absurdity and tactile surfaces introduce a sense of instability where the familiar becomes strange and the practical turns poetic. This sensibility enters a compelling dialogue with Ekström’s “tattooed” lacquer works. Her meticulously crafted surfaces are animated by biomorphic forms, intricate line work, and dreamlike symbolism. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, they evoke inner landscapes shaped by intuition and myth.

Thea Ekström (SE)

Swedish artist Thea Ekström gained wide recognition during the 1960s and 1970s. While living, her work was actively featured in solo and group exhibitions at Centre Culturel Suédois, Paris (1988/1975), Malmö konsthall, Turku Art Museum, Reykjavik Art Museum and Århus konstmuseum (1980); Gallery Marc Moyens, Washington, Baukunst Galerie, Cologne and Galerie Lietzow, Berlin (1971), Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York (1970), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1970/1960), Milwaukee Art Center, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin (1962); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City (1963), Howard University, Washington D.C. (1964), Galerie Raymond Cordier, Paris (1963/1962), Brooklyn Museum, New York (1962) and Louisiana museum, Humlebæk (1960).

Thea Ekström (1920, Söndrum, Halmstad – 1988 Stockholm, Sweden). Her work is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Norrköping Art Museum and Halland Art Museum. Noteworthy private collections include Jean Dubuffet, Georg es Pompidou, Paris, Raymond Cordier, Paris, H. Marc Moeyens, Alexandria, Robert M. Benjamin, New York, Rockefeller, New York.

3 VI 65

1965

Courtesy of the Thea Ekstrom Estate and Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm. Photo by Viktor Sjodin

19 VII 66

1966

Courtesy of the Thea Ekstrom Estate and Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm. Photo by Viktor Sjodin

27 VIII 65

1965

Courtesy of the Thea Ekstrom Estate and Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm. Photo by Viktor Sjodin

Portrait of Thea Ekström

Courtesy of the Thea Ekstrom Estate and Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm

Mattias Selldén (SE)

Mattias Selldén himself states that he “makes dysfunctional furniture that easily could be mistaken for sculpture. Or maybe it’s the other way around?” He previously exhibited in a duo show with Thaddeus Wolfe at Friedman Benda New York (2022), and had a solo exhibition Plastic Forrest at Kaleido Konsthantverk in Uppsala (2020). His work has appeared in group exhibitions and international design fairs, including New Narratives at Älvsjö Gård/Stockholm Furniture Fair (2023), Through The Looking Glass at Design Miami/Basel (2022), A New Realism at Friedman Benda, New York (2021), and What Would Have Been at Friedman Benda, New York (2020).

Mattias Selldén (b. 1986, Uppsala, Sweden). He currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Selldén received his MA in 2019 and his BA in 2013 from Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts, Stockholm, as well as a BA from Parsons School of Design, New York in 2012.