Art Review: "After The Sun - Forecasts From The North" At The Buffalo AKG Art Museum

The Exhibit Lacks Conceptual Cohesion But Contains Excellent New Work

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s new exhibit After The Sun - Forecasts From The North opened Friday in the museum’s new Gundlach Building. Conceptually ambitious, the collection seeks to “survey a generational response to the precarious state of our natural environment,” (AKG Buffalo Art Museum Press Release March 25, 2024).

“After The Sun” by Jonas Eike. Translated from Danish to English by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg. Riverhead Books. First Edition (August 24, 2021). 208 pages. ISBN 978-0593329108.

After The Sun takes its name from Danish author Jonas Eika’s 2019 collection of acclaimed short stories. Eike’s book is a delight, filled with Kafkaesque images of late capitalism’s absurdity such as employees at a Copenhagen bank, which had collapsed into rubble, proceeding with business as usual (Alvin).

I went to the bank, hoping to get in touch with one of the employees who knew me and could probably help me. The ruins were still there. I climbed a piece of marble at the edge and looked over the wreckage, which lay spread across a large expanse, torn up like a lake full of garbage, steel gray and gray‑white, yellowish with wood here and there.

Above hung a dense swarm of insects and a dark, sweet smell like rotting tea leaves . . . [h]olding on to the marble, I lowered myself down, finding a foothold in the jagged walls. . .

Bank employees lay curled up, in broken and cocooned positions dictated by the uneven walls of the pit, with computers in their laps or on their stomachs. Their faces were dirty and pale, some were wearing masks in the dusty air. “Are you looking for someone?” a young man asked, and came over to help me out of the wall.

The relationship between Eika’s book and the exhibit is ambiguous. The AKG’s website explains:

As Eika’s book addresses the profound challenge of responding to forces that pull us apart, the artists included in “After the Sun” grapple with how artistic practice may or may not succeed at meaningfully shaping the future world.

If After The Sun aspires to “grapple with artistic practice” and “survey a generational response to the natural environment;” that mission failed to connect with this writer. That said, After The Sun’s eclectic collection of works by contemporary Scandinavian artists is compelling and worth seeing.

L-R Caption: (1) Jane Jin Kaisen (b. 1980, Jeju Island, South Korea, lives in Copenhagen, Denmark). Installation of Offering—Coil Embrace, 2023. 4- channel video installation version. Running time: 12 minutes; synchronized and looped; 5 channel stereo sound. Artwork installed at Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Courtesy of the artist. © Jane Jin Kaisen. Image courtesy of the artist. (2) Olof Marsja (b. 1986, Gällivare, Lapland, Sweden, lives in Gothenburg, Sweden). Pathfinder II, 2023. Jesmonite, aluminium, stainless steel, strap, synthetic lasso, wool. 118 1/8 x 66 15/16 x 6 3/4 inches (300 x 170 x 162 cm). © Olof Marsja. Image courtesy of Olof Marsja and NEVVEN. Photo: David Eng. (3) Caption: Felipe de Ávila Franco (b. 1982, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, lives in Helsinki, Finland). The Trillionth Tonne, 2022. Thermal coal, polypropylene woven bags, and laser mapping projection. Overall: 43.3 x 86.61 x 177.2 inches (110 x 220 x 450 cm). Artwork installed at Amos Rex Museum, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. © Felipe de Ávila Franco. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Permeability of Organisms

Two themes emerged from the collection: the permeability of organic structures and the comparatively healthy relationship between Scandinavia’s indigenous peoples and the natural world.

Jane Jin Kaiser’s multi-screen video of humans suffering the deleterious effects of polluting our planet’s oceans (Offering - Coil Embrace, above) is jarring and effective; its troubling message is amplified by Felipe de Ávila Franco’s “The Trillionth Ton” (above) which makes clear that industry has no intention of mitigating pollution. Sadly, survival of the planet just isn’t cost effective.

Indigenous Peoples

Colonialism brought genocide and catastrophe to the indigenous peoples of the world; the influence of Swedish artist Olaf Marsja’s Sami heritage in his art gives some small indication as to how much was lost, (Pathfinder II, above). Marsja’s magical, hybrid figures seem to embody the Sami belief that all natural objects possess a soul.

(1) Sara-Vide Ericson (b. 1983, Bollnäs, Sweden, lives in Älvkarhed, Sweden). The Weaver, 2024. Oil on canvas. Triptych, overall: 129.92 x 196.85 inches (330 x 500 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Sara-Vide Ericson. Image courtesy of the artist. (2) Sara-Vide Ericson (b. 1983, Bollnäs, Sweden, lives in Älvkarhed, Sweden). Soul Fracking, 2024. Oil on canvas. Triptych, overall: 129.92 x 196.85 inches (330 x 500 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Sara-Vide Ericson. Image courtesy of the artist.

Sarah Vide Ericson

The exhibit’s highlight is the canvases by Swedish artist Sarah Vide Ericson. “The Weaver” (above) is a stunning, mixed-media work containing grasses within oil illuminating a native figure, creating a Joan of Arc parallel; Ericson’s “Soul Fracking” (above) demonstrates how humans have deeply and casually scarred the earth.

“Soul Fracking” is a dramatic, large-scale work that evokes Monet’s winter landscapes with an echo of fellow Swede Alfred Wahlberg (1834-1906).

Any of After The Sun’s conceptual failures are redeemed by the high quality of its diverse collection and Sara Vide Ericson’s promising North American debut.

My Reviews Of Ongoing Exhibits At The Buffalo AKG Art Museum

I have removed the paywall from my art reviews, so if you visit the AKG check out my reviews of Stanley Whitney’s How High The Moon and Sin Wai Kin’s It’s Always You. You may also read my review of the Narsiso Martinez exhibit From These Hands/De Estas Manos, which closed April 22, 2024.