SWEDISH ART EXCHANGE

Detroit Stockholm

Artist-Run Collective | Gallery | Studios

Roslagsgatan 21, 11355 Stockholm, Sweden

October 15 – 23, 2026

CLUSTER artists have an on going art and cultural exchange with the art collective DETROIT STOCKHOLM, where two of our artists visit and show in Stockholm, and two of their artists visit and show in Seattle each year. This month, Marilyn Charlat Dix and Stephanie Hargrave were the lucky two who were able to participate in this program.

Our opening was October 15th, and the artist talk took place October 17th.

A thousand thanks to our Swedish counterparts, with a special shout out to the ever helpful Joanne Grune-Yanoff who coordinated with us and introduced us to the group and public. Thank you also to Eliska Kovacikova for helping with the lighting, to Martin Lundberg, Paula Elion, Nick Sullivan, Laetitia Dechamps and Emmy Dijkstra for being so enthusiastic! The conversations were rich, informative, warm and delightful. Thank you Jenny Soep for PR help and social media posting, and Malin Neuman what a treat to see you again!

SIMULTANEOCITY

AN EXHIBIT EXPLORING DENSITY IN CONTEMPORY CULTURE

SIMULTANEOCITY is a (non)word I’m using to signify the current state of things.  It sums up the feeling many of us have as we navigate the layered multitudes of contemporary life.  As an artist practicing in the US, the uptick in complexity over the past 8 or so years has been visceral.  Layers of difficulty that once posed a fun challenge now feel oppressive.  There doesn’t seem to be any separation between tasks anymore – it is all wars and politics on top of traffic on top of rushing to make ends meet on top of struggling to make time to make art with a large dose of uncertainty, whether in regard to the rapid rise of AI or the myriad details needing attention daily.  The world is getting faster and busier, but it is not getting any clearer, any easier, and it is certainly not getting any calmer.  It feels denser, and that feeling of density is longing for some breathing room.

This zeitgeist began seeping into my work just as I began using paper about a year ago (so I could transport the work to Stockholm).  I found myself working additively and abandoning my preferred minimalism.   The pieces became layered collages with a long list of materials – matt-board, drawings, prints, ink on Yupo paper, coffee filters, book pages, paint, photographs, charcoal, pencil, graphite, walnut ink, thread, crayon, encaustic, micron pen, linen-paper, India ink, Silverpoint.   Despite the long list, each piece strives for balance.  Receded areas do not disappear completely so-as to keep the complexity; my attempt at both acknowledging and blatantly disregarding that which is hectic, overwhelming and chaotic.

I will be configuring these smallish works in groupings as wall installations. Individually, I think of them as dense nuggets I’ve tried to reconcile.  Once in Sweden, I plan on utilizing the negative space of the walls to provide some air; to soothe what is agitated, to loosen that which is tight or dense. Each wall will become a mosaic of multitudes.  Using steel pins to attach both the collages and 3D elements, the layout of each wall will happen in real time during the install – my attempt at organizing the layered multitudes.

-Stephanie Hargrave

VIEW THE ENTIRE BODY OF WORK HERE

GLIMPSE

Personal roots, relationships, and connections are central to my work. I begin by focusing on the people, imagining their lives through their clothing, posture, attitude, and physical presence. By combining these qualities on a variety of surfaces and applied marks, I seek to reveal personality, tell stories, and invite viewers to engage with the narratives they suggest.

-Marilyn Charlat Dix

CLUSTER in Stockholm for SUPERMARKET 2026

For the theme THE GREAT GALA, we have fashioned the MAGA crew celebrating themselves as life-sized puppets to show our discontent with the US administration. See below for coverage in a Swedish Culture Newspaper!

Past Exhibits:

WHO WHAT WHEN . . .

Collaborative Evolution Project Shown at Aurora Loop Gallery, September 2025

MORE INFORMATION

SWEDISH ART EXCHANGE

CLUSTER artists have an on going art and cultural exchange with the art collective DETROIT STOCKHOLM, where two of our artists visit and show in Stockholm, and two of their artists visit and show in Seattle each year. This month, Eliska Kovacikova & Malin Neuman are our Swedish Exchange Artists showing at Ellen Hochberg Studios and Stephanie Hargrave Studio.

CLUSTER: from Stockholm to Seattle

Featuring what we presented in Sweden for Seattle’s September Art Walk, 2024

When: First Thursday September 5, 5-8pm & Second Saturday September 14, Noon-4pm

Location: STEPHANIE HARGRAVE STUDIO, 306 South Washington Street, #104, Seattle

The theme for the entire affair was Dream On. We thoughtfully curated a body of work that addresses ideas surrounding our dream lives, what it is to dream, how dreams are later perceived and remembered, and depictions of dreams both positive and frightening. Our work features a variety of mediums, styles and imagery that overlaps beautifully on the considered theme.

LINK TO ARTIST TALK

Our exhibit embodies fragments of what I believe all humans experience in dreams; wonderfully layered images, some fading out, others in focus, with a jostle of the incomprehensible along the way.  Some people dream in color, others in black and white.  Many of us experience humor and narrative in our dreams, the content often possessing a porousness where ideas flow freely and can lead to physical conversions.  The sense of calm in sweet dreams is perhaps experienced with a backdrop of strange beauty or lively animals.  Nightmares are chaos and panic, often with a dramatic palette.  Memories are layered with form, structure with nuance.  It would seem there is no scenario that has not been dreamed, yet we can never see another person’s dreams, sweet or otherwise.

Notice the subtle duality in Carolyn Autenrieth’s delicately rippled porcelain sculptures approximating the obscure moments that hover between dreams and awakening.  Dualism is rendered again with Rosalie Frankel’s work illustrating the sweet dream and the nightmare, articulated with waxed fabric; one clearly a safe space, pretty and calm in its interpretation, the other unsettled, a blood red spot indicating danger.  The sculptural work of June Sekiguchi is pure porousness expressed in form; her mandala-like structures feel brain-like, even cellular in nature.  Theresa Neinas’ block prints bring a touch of the literal with narrative interpretations, expertly carved and printed in stark black and white.  Ellen Hochberg as well offers the literal with embroidered nighties, plus a video element that begs the question: what if we could see another person’s dreams?  If we could, we might be looking at Eliaichi Kimaro’s colorful ‘sketches’ executed first thing in the morning to capture that dreaminess before the coffee hits.  All her work encompasses an organic structure that lends itself to the language-less interpretation of not just dreams but life, much like Dawn Endean’s hand stitched ‘quilt’ that reads as a storyboard telling a most exquisite dream, filled with people, animals and stop-motion video animation expertly expressing the recurring nature of dreams.  Marilyn Charlat Dix displays overlapping transparent ‘skins’ in soft hues that blend memories and people with the wired loops of those same memories and people.  In Stephanie Hargrave’s work, people are missing entirely; a dream of becoming an insect is transposed into imagery that repeats itself right side up and upside down as two slightly different photographs overlap, merged with beeswax.  The transparent, sepia toned arthropods express a complete metamorphosis.

 -Stephanie Hargrave

SUPERMARKET ART FAIR 

Stockholm, Sweden – April 25-28, 2024

The theme for the entire affair is Dream On, and we’ve thoughtfully curated a body of work that addresses ideas surrounding our dream lives, what it is to dream, how dreams are later perceived and remembered, and depictions of dreams both positive and frightening. Our work features a variety of mediums, styles and imagery that overlaps beautifully on the considered theme.

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C L U S T E R

Group Show

Tashiro Kaplan Building Space 101, Seattle

August 1 – September 30, 2023