Peter Hammar exhibits in Chicago

The Swedish artist has created 'Mapping Empty Spaces' a mixed media installation for the Swedish American Museum in Chicago, to open on March 7. 

  • The artist, Peter Hammar, photographed by Robert Figuerova.

  • Open your minds and step into the world of a later day immigrant. The Swedish American artist Peter Hammar has created "Mapping Empty Spaces," a mixed media installation for the Swedish American Museum in Chicago, which opens on March 7. The exhibit includes eight groups of presentations including collages, wall sculptures, LED-light sculptures and a video projection with a just-created soundtrack by Armand Wallenberg. Opening reception Friday, March 7. For more info, see www.swedishamericanmuseum.org

  • A blurred identity from living over a decade abroad and in a variety of cities. Super enlarged passport/ID photos of the artist spanning a little over 20 years.

  • Mapping Empty Spaces is a contemporary take on the immigrant story.

  • The exhibit includes eight groups of presentations including collages, wall sculptures, LED-light sculptures and a video projection.

  • “I researched the Swedish American Museum’s exhibits and archives, and searched my own experience from living in the U.S. as an immigrant for little more than a decade. The permanent exhibits at the museum showcase facts about the early Swedish immigrants’ journey. In my show I have abstracted it and wanted to keep it universal.”
    It’s a homecoming of sorts for the Stockholm-born artist who lived for many years in New York, Stockholm and Miami, but then last summer Hammar did an artist residency at Acre — Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions — in Chicago. “While researching the city I found the Swedish American Museum. I immediately loved the idea of a museum dedicated to Swedish heritage and immigrants' stories and felt a need and want to be part of their program.”
    “The title of my solo exhibition here, 'Mapping Empty Spaces,' is what I have put a focus on: the loss, gain, selective memory, past and present, and blurred identity that most people encounter, while moving, often from one place to another for an extensive period of time. I use a lot of found, discarded materials that I revamp and give a second life and meaning to.”
    Hammar has received several prestigious awards, most recently as the Grand Prize winner of Art Takes Miami — SCOPE Art Basel Miami Beach in late 2013. He received an honorable mention as one of Miami's most inspiring creative in Miami New Times in January 2014, and his works are already in several major private and corporate collections. Now he can be enjoyed in the heart of Andersonville, Chicago’s classic Swedish settlement.
    “It’s important to connect the past with the present to better understand today. I am very excited to work with the museum and it's superb staff. It is an honor to have this opportunity to connect with the rich Swedish history that exists in Andersonville and Chicago. My wish is that the exhibit would travel to other Swedish institutions in the U.S. after it comes down on June 15.”
    For more info on the artist, see www.peterhammar.com
    Opening reception Friday, March 7. For more info, see www.swedishamericanmuseum.org


  • Part of "I am not the same as yesterday" — 8 pieces of thrift store replica statues of romantic figurines that have been altered and painted white after molten tin has been poured over the top.

  • A blurred identity from living over a decade abroad and in a variety of cities. Super enlarged passport/ID photos of the artist spanning a little over 20 years.