I recently had the opportunity to visit Ann Edholm’s current exhibition »Voices / Röster« at Galerie Nordenhake in Berlin. Edholm, born in 1953 in Stockholm, is considered one of the most renowned abstract painters in her country. Her often monumental works combine geometric abstraction with subtle expressionistic gestures. In this show, Edholm brings together significant works from the early 1990s and a new body of paintings from this year that marks a new phase in her practice.
I must admit that up until that point, I had only seen Edholm’s work on screen, and her paintings seemed almost too powerful and even a little intimidating to me. Anyone familiar with my work here on Aesence knows that I always seek a sense of calm and peace in minimalist art. On site however, her large-format paintings unfolded a unique presence.
Clear geometric shapes meet subtle, almost intimate gestures. Edholm works mainly with oil, acrylic, vinyl, and sometimes beeswax, applied in multiple thin layers on cotton canvas. The intense contrasts and precisely drawn stripes of the works on display appear energetic and almost repellent – and challenge me significantly at first glance. I feel a resistance within me, but I allow myself to embrace this feeling. I step closer and feel my gaze widening more and more. The colors of the paintings shift in depth and tonality, opening up an intricate, breathing surface: I discover fingerprints, fleeting brushstrokes, smudges, and small imperfections. And suddenly – beneath the vivid surface – a delicate vulnerability opens up that I had not expected.
Ann Edholm emphasizes that “the paintings should be experienced like meeting a person.” And that was exactly the case. Her works demand a different kind of attention from me. But this tension between powerful presence and vulnerability, between distance and intimacy, makes her art fascinating to me. Edholm has found her own unique language – one that translates the unutterable into a direct, physical form.
I felt challenged and, at the same time, invited to delve deeper. Sometimes it is precisely the works that initially resist us that end up touching something deep within us. The visit surprised me in a positive way and transformed my initial hesitation into genuine interest.
The paintings should be experienced like meeting a person.
Ann Edholm
Detail of an artwork at »Voices / Röster« with Ann Edholm at Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, 2026. © The Artist, Photography Aesence
