9.10 - 31.10 2025
Opening in the artist's presence, Thursday, October 9th, 5-7 pm
Kissing them goodbye is Karin Wikström’s first solo exhibition at Galleri Helle Knudsen. The exhibition explores life’s small and large farewells, as well as the lingering fragments and traces that remain. Her paintings are populated by people, animals, and hybrids—a gaze that is both challenging and sorrowful, an animal figure that feels both familiar and alien. Wikström’s works are as enigmatic as they are tender, and they never provide unequivocal answers.
“Always time, and with the years shifting farewells. Cotton candy. The ditches. The language. A cat’s death. Of course, it isn’t really about the cat, but still. A clumsy goodbye.” – Karin Wikström
Karin Wikström was born in 1959 in Östersund and lives and works in Gothenburg. She was educated at the KV School of Art, Hovedskous Painting School, and the Valand Academy of Fine Arts. Her works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and art institutions throughout Sweden, most recently in a widely noted solo exhibition at Liljevalchs+ in 2022. Wikström is represented in both public and private collections, including Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Malmö Art Museum, Borås Art Museum, the Nordic Watercolour Museum in Skärhamn, and the Public Art Agency Sweden.
Karin Wikström, Untitled, acrylic on panel, 49 x 43 cm