About Pernilla Zetterman
Pernilla Zetterman lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied photography in Sweden and Finland, receiving a postgraduate degree from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, an MFA from the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and a BFA from the School of Photography at Göteborg University. Her work has been shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions, including the recent touring exhibition, The Helsinki School, and is represented in the permanent collections of Fotomuseum Winterthur and Hasselblad Foundation, among others.
In When, Zetterman explores behavioural patterns, structures, obsessions and the origins and contours of identity. A study of three generations, Zetterman photographed part of the series in her grandmother’s home, her mother’s and her own, examining the things each woman collects and holds dear or leaves to decay.
In Ground Rules, Zetterman uses her former training as a track and field athlete as the backdrop to investigate issues of performance, control, motivation and regimentation. Here, as in When and much of Zetterman’s work, we see how the details of a discipline, a sport or a behaviour, act as the grammar for a language to be studied and learned, taught and passed down to future generations – of athletes or daughters.
Equestrian culture, and the rites and rituals associated with it, is the focal point of Zetterman’s Close. In this culture, Zetterman finds an environment charged with issues of control, discipline and power, but also of love and trust. Close ups of parts of horses’ bodies express the feelings found in a moment of intimacy and contrast with the stern discipline of whips, reins, bites and other tools of behavioural restraint and modification.
In Grammar, Zetterman explores questions of language, communication and codification. As a starting point she used her own relationship to speech and writing, as well as the challenge of a foreign language and the possibility of human understanding and misunderstanding. Grammar consists of word combinations from a study on dyslexia, as well as photographs and a video work in which she experiments with visualising vulnerability, trust and introversion.
Curriculum vitae
Education
| 2004-05 | Postgraduate Studies, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland |
| 2000-02 | MFA, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm |
| 1997-00 | BFA, School of Photography at Göteborg University, Göteborg |
Selected Group Shows
| 2010 | Photography and Video NOW, Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland |
| 2009 | Art Forum Berlin, Gallery TaiK, Germany › Go |
| Samlingsutställning, Galleri Mårtenson & Persson, Båstad, Sweden | |
| On Top of the Iceberg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany › Go | |
| 2008 | Rose Boréal, Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille, France |
| La croisée des regards, Centre culturel suédois, Paris, France › Go | |
| Blandad blick/La croisée des regards, Fotografins Hus, Stockholm | |
| Rose Boréal, Galeries d´exposition, Beaux-arts de Paris, France › Go | |
| 2007 | Towards a New Ease - Set 4 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland |
| Art Forum Berlin, Gallery TaiK, Germany | |
| New Photography by TaiK, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland | |
| Photo Finnish - The Helsinki School, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway | |
| Konstfeminism (Art Feminism) Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg | |
| 2006 | Modellverkstaden, Statens Konstråds galleri (Gallery of the National Public Art Council of Sweden), Stockholm |
| Vad är fotografi? (What Is Photography?), Borås konstmuseum | |
| Dialog – Helsinki School, Langhans Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic | |
| The Helsinki School – Finnish Photography from the 21st Century, City Hall of Brussels, Belgium | |
| Konstfeminism, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm and Hälsninglands Museum, Hudiksvall | |
| Återspeglingar (Reflections), Kulturhuset, Stockholm | |
| 2005 | Paris Photo, Gallery TaiK, Le Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France |
| Art Forum Berlin, Gallery TaiK, Germany | |
| Konstfeminism, Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg | |
| Ny svensk fotografi (New Swedish Photography), Hasselblad Center, Göteborg | |
| Die Vierte Generation, PPS Galerie, Hamburg, Germany | |
| Finnish Versions - The Helsinki School, CFF - Centrum för Fotografi, Stockholm | |
| Instabilt: nya riktningar inom svensk fotografi (Unstable: New Directions in Swedish Photography), Bildmuseet, Umeå | |
| 2004 | Instabilt, Kulturhuset, Stockholm |
| Ny svensk fotografi, Hasselblad Center, Göteborg | |
| 2003 | Show Unit, Riksutställningar (Swedish Travelling Exhibitions), Sweden |
| Hästen – tyglad, piskad och älskad (The Horse – Bridled, Whipped and Loved), Nordiska Museet, Stockholm | |
| Arghh, Edsviks konsthall, Stockholm | |
| Wish you were here…, Galleri Brändström, Stockholm | |
| 2002 | Prospects, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm |
| Några skärvor och ett dussin krukor (Some Shards and a Dozen Flowerpots), Sjöhistoriska muséet, Stockholm | |
| 2000 | ArtGenda, Makasiinit, Helsinki, Finland |
| Exercis, Exercishuset, Göteborg |
Public Commission
| 2006 | Ground Rules - permanent installation at KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Commissioned by the National Public Art Council of Sweden › PDF (English) › PDF (Swedish) |
Selected Bibliography
| 2009 | Behave - monograph by Pernilla Zetterman, text by Urs Stahel and Helene Boström, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern › Go |
| The Helsinki School - Young Photography by TaiK Vol.3, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern › Go | |
| 2008 | Rose Boréal, Éditions de l’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, France |
| 2007 | Set 4 - The Collection Publication Catalogue, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur |
| FOTO #9 (magazine, artist in focus section) | |
| Catalogue #36, National Public Art Council of Sweden, text by Milou Allerholm › Go | |
| The Helsinki School - New Photography by Taik, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern. Reprinted and translated into German in 2009. › Go (English edition) › Go (German edition) |
|
| 2006 | Capricious #5, editor and publisher Sophie Mörner, New York › Go |
| Känn dig själf - Genus, historiekonstruktion och kulturhistoriska museirepresentationer, dissertation by Wera Grahn, Linköping University, Linköping | |
| Konstfeminism (Art Feminism - Strategies and consequences in Sweden from the 1970s to the present), published collaboratively by Dunkers Kulturhus, Liljevalchs Konsthall and Riksutställningar | |
| 2005 | Die Vierte Generation, exhibition catalogue, PPS Galerie, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2004 | Hasselblad Foundation Catalogue 2004 |
| Instabilt - nya riktningar inom svensk fotografi, Kulturhuset, Stockholm | |
| Fotografisk Tidskrift #4, text by Gösta Flemming | |
| 2003 | Arghh, Edsviks Konsthall, Stockholm |
| 2000 | Exercis - fotografiet står i centrum, School of Photography at Göteborg University, text by Julia Tedroff |
Grants and Awards
| 2009 | Iaspis, International Exhibition |
| The Art Grants Committee, two-year working grant | |
| Scholarship Längmanska Foundation | |
| 2008 | Höga-Kusten Artist Scholarship |
| Helge Ax:son Johnsons Foundation | |
| 2007 | The Art Grants Committee, project grants |
| Selected to participate in Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland › Go |
|
| 2006 | Nominated for the Stockholm Award |
| 2005 | Iaspis, International Exhibition |
| Culture Foundation Sweden/Finland | |
| 2004 | The Victor Fellowship, Hasselblad Foundation › Go |
| The City of Stockholm’s Artist Scholarship | |
| Grundsunda Artist Scholarship | |
| 2003 | The Art Grants Committee, two-year working grant |
| 2002 | Scholarship Nils-Johan Sjöstedt Foundation, University College of Art, Craft and Design, Stockholm |
| Sthlm Art Fair/The Academic House Grants Award of Honour | |
| 2001 | Scholarship Beata Brummer Foundation, University College of Art, Craft and Design, Stockholm |
| 2000 | Scholarship Robert Frank, Göteborg |
| 1999 | Crimsons Photography Foundation, Stockholm |
Works in Collections
Municipality of Kramfors
Fotomuseum Winterthur
Borås Konstmuseum
Hasselblad Foundation
Norrköpings museum
County council of Värmland
The Academic House
General art society, Carlsberg corporation
General art society, Pfizer corporation
General art society, Municipality of Skövde
Södertälje Konsthall
Private collectors