Issues presents painting and sculpture by young, contemporary and familiar artists in a new and unfamiliar room. Like the new underground commuter train station below Odenplan, there is a new white cube on the Stockholm art scene but behind the Hillenberg restaurant on Humlegårdsgatan. What’s to be observed in both cases is that the mental and physical room and map is expanded in front of the Stockholm audience. Where bottlenecks are created in the public transport flow, pressure has to be released through new lines and stations in other places.
On the initiative of chef and restauranteur Niklas Ekstedt and in an addition to the Hillenberg restaurant, a room for contemporary art now opens. It turns out that the room that had no apparent use for the restaurant has the potential to become one of the better rooms for contemporary art in Stockholm. When access to commercial and central spaces of this size is limited for small galleries, we are happy to be able to use this room for Issues, says Oscar Carlson, artistic director at Issues.