The Municipality of Västerås awards cultural grants each year. This exhibition shows grant-holders from the last two years. In 2017 the grantholders were Johanna Ehde, Frida Lundén and Jakob Ojanen. In 2018 they were Björn Camenius and Lisa Juntunen Roos.
The collection at Västerås Art Museum turns 100 years old in 2019. In the exhibition 19 – 19 we celebrate this 100th anniversary by displaying a selection of art from our collection created between the years 1919 and 2019. We also have an ambition to provide a contextual understanding of the society in which the artworks were created. In 19 – 19 four historical perspectives are put forward: the international, the national, the feminist and the local perspective. Västerås Art Society was formed on September 29th, 1919. In 1974 the society donated its art collection, which contained around 1,000 art works, to the municipality of Västerås. Today, the collection is administrated by Västerås Art Museum.
For over 30 years feminist activist group Guerrilla Girls has successfully criticized art institutions all over the world. Guerrilla Girls got their first recognition 1985 through their “guerrilla-posting” on the streets of New York. Few would have guessed that the activist work of Guerrilla Girls would still be as vital and topical as ever in 2019 - only today they operate all over the world. During the spring and summer of 2019, Västerås Art Museum exhibits a selection of their posters and videos.
The video installation Dance for me (2018) explores the online beauty community. The artist, Karolina Oxelväg operates with the viral video as a growing expression of identity. The installation explores the beauty industry and how different approaches of exposure affect our well-being. In Dance for me the audience is invited to dance. At first, the perfidious beauty of the surface captures you, but the flashing and pure colors conceals a mania. Karolina Oxelväg graduated from The Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm in 2018.