"Venus at Her Mirror"
Signed Ylva Ogland and dated 2007 on verso. Canvas 127 x 89 cm.
Amy Smith-Steward, New York. Acquired by the present owner in 2007.
Smith Stewart, New York, "Venus at Her Mirror", 6 September - 30 September 2007. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, "The Deluded Eye. Five Centuries of Deception", 25 September 2008 - 11 January 2009. MAP, Stockholm, "Venus at Her Mirror", 2009.
Nationalmuseum, Karin Sidén (ed.), "The Deluded Eye. Five Centuries of Deception", 2008, exhibition catalogue, pictured page p. 19. Bonniers Konsthall och Silvana Editoriale, ed. Sara Arrhenius and others, "Ylva Ogland, She, an introduction", Stockholm, 2015, pictured p. 242.
Ylva Ogland is one of the most significant contemporary artists of her generation. Ogland lives through her painting, within the creation of her art and virtually in the midst of the exhibition, in the performance. Her artistry is based on personal experiences, mythologies and the subconscious, where art history is constantly present. In her painting, she processes memories, herself and parallel worlds where the Oracle and her mirror twin Snöfrid have prominent roles. For Ogland, painting is her language. Ylva Ogland and Snöfrid are one. Hence the artist’s new name Ylva Snöfrid.
“Venus at Her Mirror” contains many of the components that her artistry builds on today and is one of Ogland’s early and more important paintings. The image is of a nursery cabinet designed and built by her father and a self-portrait painted from a photograph taken by her father. Burning candles, a poppy flower, seed pods with sap of opium and needles. Also, a bunny and a round bathroom mirror. Matter-of-factly and devoid of sentimentality, she takes on subjects which she has come into contact with during her upbringing en route to adulthood.
Ylva Snöfrid participates in a group show at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, "Children of the Children of the Revolution", 14 April - 19 August 2018.