Silence

Art schools teach how to talk and write about art.

The actual works risk to become subordinate to the discourse. The ability to create, see and experience becomes secondary to the ability to verbalize. In its extreme, artistic research education is sometimes dominated by Anglo-Saxon theorists who, with their superior academic English, can express themselves so well about art that no one notices that the works of art have been lost somewhere along the way. Nina Slejko Blom used to refer to her paintings as 'conceptual painting' — each work came with a clear idea of what it wanted to address, and Slejko Blom found it important to talk about this, in words. After 20 years, however, she has come to realize that it is okay not to speak. That there is actually no need for words when you paint, or when you look at paintings. In the exhibition Slejko Blom presents her new series, “Silence”, a work freed from the forced idea that there must be a verbal presentation or concept behind a work of art. The paintings are what they appear to be, no more and no less. Exposed and vulnerable, and completely honest.

However, Nina Slejko Blom has by no means stopped verbally expressing herself and parallel with painting, Slejko Blom is a prolific artist's book and zine creator and has published over 60 works with reflections on everything from cultural politics to racism and neoliberal predatory capitalism, to motherhood and family life.