Jens Fänge had recently returned from a stay in New York. The previous year, he was awarded a one-year ISP scholarship (International Studio Program). This scholarship was awarded annually by IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

In the exhibition, Jens Fänge presented paintings, drawings (gouache), and sculptures. In his meticulously painted works, one could discern a kind of silent sabotage of the notions and expectations associated with painting as a genre and tradition.

Jens Fänge drew on imagery from mass culture, saga culture, and art history. His works traced multiple paths in their exploration of selected motifs and techniques, including portraits, interiors, objects, and patterns, floating against backgrounds of kitschy, pale pastel colors.

Humor was an underlying element in Fänge’s work. Among other things, he explored the playful relationship surrounding the masculine genius and a strong sense of originality by approaching the feminine genre in forms such as flower painting or embroidery, deeply rooted in tradition and familiarity.

Jens Fänge (born 1965) was educated at the Valand Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. He had previously exhibited in New York at PULSE: Painting Nowat Rare Gallery, Under Constructionat Gen Art, and From Here, Good Life Project – The BBQ Series. The following year, he participated in A Message to Prettyat Thread Waxing Space in New York and later in From Hereat High Street Project in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Eva Larsson had participated in several exhibitions in Denmark, including the exhibition Boomerangat the Nikolaj Exhibition Building in Copenhagen and New Art from Denmark and Skåneat Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Eva Larsson’s projects were broad in scope and consistently focused on inexplicable feelings and moods that influence and intertwine with human life. Her works encouraged reflection and contemplation of the possible traumas underlying human choices and passions.

At the exhibition at Stalke Galleri, Eva Larsson presented a series of paintings and drawings under the collective title Fields of Energy. The works formed part of a project concerned with holding on and letting go. Larsson portrayed the images as a kind of energy field—minute yet manic—leading thoughts toward obsession and desire.

Eva Larsson (born 1953) was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She lived and worked in Malmö.

Installation views from Jens Fänge’s exhibition at Stalke Galleri, 1999,

The exhibition was described as a quiet but compelling encounter with imagery that unfolds slowly and resists immediate interpretation. Jens Fänge’s paintings were noted for their restrained technique and subdued expressiveness, where isolated objects and fragments appear like clues in an unresolved narrative. The works were characterized by a deliberate sparseness, allowing everyday forms to take on a sense of ambiguity and latent meaning.

Reviewers highlighted how Fänge’s compositions evoke a slightly dislocated perspective on reality, producing a floating, almost weightless atmosphere that invites prolonged viewing. Rather than offering clear answers, the paintings were seen to operate as visual traces—suggestions that hover between memory, dream, and investigation.

Eva Larsson’s contribution was described as equally introspective but more energetically charged. Her drawings and paintings were connected to an ongoing exploration of emotional states such as restlessness, release, and desire. The works were noted for their rhythmic line work and dense accumulation of marks, which together created a sense of motion and psychological intensity.

Overall, the exhibition was received as a thoughtful and well-balanced presentation, in which both artists engaged with subtle shifts in perception and meaning. The reviewers emphasized that the works reward sustained attention and time, gradually revealing their depth rather than asserting themselves through spectacle.

Sources: Danish newspaper reviews, 1999.

Paintings by Eva Larsson from her 1999 exhibition at Stalke Galleri, showing intricate, patterned surfaces created through repetitive brushwork

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