Good fortune, no blame – in memory of Emil Westman Hertz, 2016.

Emil Westman Hertz died in June 2016 after a long illness, he was only 38 years old. In this exhibition dedicated to the memory of Emil we are showing works of artist colleagues, relatives and friends, that at one point have been in artistic dialogue with him.

Many of the artists included have made collaborative works together with Emil and in the exhibition we present several of these collaborations. Some go back to his years at the Art Academy while others are of a more recent date such as a collaborative project from a residency in Mallorca in 2014, which is realized here for the first time. In the case of some of the other artists the dialogue has been mainly indirect, based on a shared interest in certain motifs, materials or references from ethnographic spaces to comics – or more basically around a shared attitude to making art.

The list of artists bear witness to how ramified and generous Emil’s approach always was and to how many different topics he was in exchange with on many levels. The works are connected to the encompassing symbolic space of feelings and thoughs that is in Emil’s work and they channel this universe of meaning, and maybe also a part of his subjectivity, into new form.

In addition to the works in dialogue with Emil we are also showing a collection of his last works. This exhibition within the exhibition consists of a new group of bronze sculptures and vitrine sculptures, as well as a large group of drawings and watercolours, where flowers, gardens, bodies, and many other motifs flow together and come apart in fragile and fantatic shapes. This is the first time the bronze sculptures and paper works are being exhibited.