"Dunce Cap", 2015
Signed Nygårds Karin Bengtsson and numbered 4/5 + 2 AP on verso. C-print silicone mounted to glass and aluminum 53 x 60 cm.
Tom Böttiger Collection, Stockholm.
Zornmuseet, Mora, "Med ryggen mot tiden", 16 October 2021 - 16 January 2022.
Galleri Thomas Wallner i Simrishamn, ”A Fool´s Day”, 2016.
Nygårds Karin Bengtsson's photographs depict a staged reality. The images are carefully arranged and constructed, much like a still life, taking into account light, color, and form. Through her staged photographs, she aims to show how life gradually transforms from a narrative into a memory.
Nygårds Karin Bengtsson's work encompasses almost every aspect of film production: scriptwriting, directing, set design, casting, costume, lighting, and props. The result is painterly images that are always timeless and minimalist, revolving around themes of human relationships with time and space, fiction and reality, memory and perception. They capture frozen moments, obscure and mysterious, in the state before or after the drama. In an interview, she stated that Time and Death are her constant themes of work, and that the transience of life is something she has always contemplated deeply.
In the winter of 2021/2022, Zornmuseet in Mora showcased the exhibition "Med ryggen mot tiden" (With the Back Against Time), Nygårds Karin Bengtsson's largest solo exhibition to date, featuring works from 2004 onwards. In connection with this, Nygårds Karin Bengtsson was interviewed in Helsingborgs Dagblad (October 17, 2021). When asked if she takes a stance against Anders Zorn's national romanticism, she replied, "Rather, I resist how people are depicted in art, especially based on whether you are a man or a woman. I see all my models, regardless of whether they are men, women, or children, as equal. In Zorn's time, children were idealized, but what I have done is to see children as existential beings who do not shy away from the difficult."
Nygårds Karin Bengtsson was born and raised in Mora, educated in Sweden, Finland, and Germany, and now resides and works in Höganäs. Her photographs have been exhibited at venues such as Helsinki Art Hall, Eskilstuna Art Museum, Alingsås Art Hall, and Fotografiska in Stockholm in 2015, which marked her breakthrough with the general public. Nygårds Karin Bengtsson has received several scholarships and awards, and her works are represented in institutions such as Malmö Art Museum, the Swedish Public Art Agency, Stockholm Art, Region Skåne, and Örebro County Museum.