The American Midwest as Bastion for New Nordic Tradition
Layers of landscapes overlap in a video by Finnish artist Tia Keobounpheng. Found in the last room of the gallery at Scandinavia House, “WAYFIND” (2023) acts as a self-portrait, a search for ancestry and homeland after she discovered her Sámi heritage. The 24 artists in Nordic Echoes – Tradition in Contemporary Art also interrogate artistic sources: All live in the Upper Midwest (a region defined as North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) but carry on traditions from Nordic art. As curator Sally Yerkovich described to me during a tour, the exhibition is “grounded in Nordic traditions, but it’s not traditional.” While not all the artists in the exhibition are of Nordic descent, all draw inspiration from it.
These works are new interpretations of traditions that have sometimes been passed down so seamlessly that some forgot when or how they learned a particular skill. On view, for instance, are many forms of the Norwegian tradition of Rosemaling, and Minnesota-based Tara Austin reinterprets the signature ornamentation of the Swedish Dala horse as translucent swirls in her acrylic-and-paint “Dala Horse (large, medium, small)” (undated). These contemporary interpretations offer a way for artists to acknowledge their roots while building new forms, and each work opens up portals into other lineages.
Even the materials tell stories: reindeer antlers; buffalo hide; small pieces of wood that were altered by a rescued cockatoo, tucked into sterling silver jewelry. Some of those materials were transformed with functionality in mind, such as John Frandy’s impressively intricate “Mantle Clock with crows (5) and pendulum” and his “Footstool” (both undated), decorated with fairytale-like silhouettes. Other interventions are more artistic and abstract, such as Lisa Wiitala’s series of Finnish ryijy; or Elizabeth Belz’s large metal moth and mosquito sculptures “Plume Moth” and “Dragon Butterfly” (both 2024). Many works in Nordic Echoes communicate a connection to nature, especially fauna and flora local to their Upper Midwest environments. Beth Kraus, for instance, crafted a guinea pig carrier from birch bark. There are two tiny holes where its feet would have been sticking out, and bite marks still visible on edges where it seemingly gnawed. One can imagine the fuzzy creature with beady eyes peering from her woven enclosure.
The artists in this exhibition suggest that traditional objects can have a resonance beyond their original form, and that they can be adapted to a local setting with regional materials and still be part of a Nordic traditional artistic lineage. As Yerkovich asked during her walkthrough, “How do we keep these traditional skills alive, that might inspire the continuity of the tradition, rather than being left in someone’s grandmother’s cabinet?” Indeed, this show will soon travel to many more museums in the Upper Midwest, which might just inspire the next generation of these artists.
Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art continues at Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan) through August 2. The exhibition was curated by Sally Yerkovich with Olivia Dodd. The exhibition will later travel to the South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, South Dakota; American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Vesterheim, Decorah, Iowa; Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; and De Vos Art Museum, Marquette, Michigan.
