A First for a Young Artist

Anna Sorenson is just about to graduate from Pratt Institute, yet her artwork is already featured in an upcoming Chelsea exhibition.  

  • Anna Sörenson, originally from Stockholm, is current with her first exhibition in Chelsea; Paper: Art

  • On Thursday, April 26, she will be showing at the exhibition 'Paper: work' at Ground Art in Chelsea.

  • Photo: Anna Sörenson

  • Can you tell us about the exhibition Paper: Work?
    The exhibition highlights paper as an art material, and embraces diverse ways of how to work with paper. We are six artists, in different ages and we all have our own style. Ground Art is a non-profit organization, and all profits will be donated to the I am Haiti Project – helping them rebuild their schools. It’s fun to be part of such a rewarding project.

  • Photo: Anna Sörenson

  • Tell us about your art?
    My view of art comes from daily events, such as forms and motions around me. I am experimenting with material and making collages of common every day elements like garbage bags, plastic lids and fabric pieces. A painting can be an illusion, a picture and a psychical object, and everyone reads it differently.

  • Photo: Anna Sörenson

  • Why paper?
    Paper has something unpretentious. A picture in a frame can somehow seem very final and doesn’t invite to interpretation. I want to leave space for the viewer to think and come up with their own associations, so they can in the end be a part of the artwork itself. Paper is a great component to combine with other materials, and I often sew paper on paper or paper on fabric. The stitches create a nice line, which for me express carefulness. But when you stick the needle into the material to create an aggressive hole, it also expresses pain.

  • Photo: Anna Sörenson

  • When did you realize that you wanted to become an artist?
    When I was 8 years old, we were told to draw a self-portrait for some time in the future. I painted myself with big glasses and wearing a painter jacket, and wrote the sentence; “I’m at Konstfack” (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Sweden.) However, my family is very interested in art, so partly I grew up in this world.

  • Anna Sörenson at her opening reception at Pratt Institute, in March 2012

  • Tell us about your life in New York?
    I did an exchange semester at Parsons New School for design, and fell in love with New York. New York’s cultural and art diversity creates a confused yet inspiring mess. So after I got a scholarship, I began to study the program MFA at Pratt Institute, and now I have been here for over two years and it feels like home.

  • Where will we see you in the future?
    I’m in contact with a few galleries in Sweden as well as in New York... But right now I’m working with a project I call - Suitcase Pairings. A series of paintings will be travelling in different suitcases this summer; to different places with different people and be photographed, and later be developed into an exhibition.
    But first I will take my masters degree this spring, and later this summer I will have a nice vacation and study land art in Arizona and California.

  • Text & photo: Hanna Aqvilin

  • Don't miss the opening reception at Ground art this Thursday April 26th, 6-9pm at 526 West 26th Street
 9E & 9F, NY.

  • Find out more about Anna Sörenson at: http://annasorenson.se/
    Read more about the exhibition Paper: Work here: http://groundarts.org/

  • Text: Hanna Aqvilin