MATILDA FORSBERG: SENTIENT MEMORIES

The Gallery at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of Montclair and Luma Art Advisory is pleased to present a selection of large and small works by painter Matilda Forsberg. On view at the office gallery of the home service agency on Bloomfield Avenue, the exhibition features works between the years 2021 through 2024. Matilda Forsberg's portrait paintings are evocative recollections of ancestry and sentient visualizers of the mindscape. Originally from Sweden, Forsberg has lived on different coasts in the states until she settled making her bonds with her then-partner’s family in Florida. Motherhood catalyzed her focus on family portraits as she would create works that explored her daughter's multicultural identity, including her Chinese ancestry from her paternal parent. Referencing family photographs, Forsberg creates a new iteration of the time capsule pictures by implementing the consciousness of those who carry the memories. The mindscape paintings include surrealist imagery of the subjects taking the form of the natural world. It is an exploration of the whimsical nature of human consciousness. A seated family immersed in a ruby-toned terrain. A young girl adorns a white dress that transmogrified into a cascade beneath her. Forsberg began expanding her exploration of familial memories to friends. The works leave much to be explored of the lineage of who holds the memory and the fostered relationship that inspired its new iteration. In October 2023, Forsberg was selected for a month-long residency at the La Fourchette de Rōze in the Ivory Coast. The ocean was a solace to Forsberg, to look in the opposite direction of where her home resides. With this meditative connection to the water, Forsberg became acquainted with local merchants on the beach. However, it wasn’t until Forsberg embarked on another artist residency program at Long Island’s The Potatoe Farm Project in June 2024, settled at the shore of the Atlantic, musing of her time across the vast waters months prior, that she began making works inspired by her time in the Ivory Coast. The passage of time demonstrates the significance of Forsberg’s sentience as it informs her art-making. In these works, Forsberg takes an attune study of the color scape of the coastal terrain and it’s complimentary of the brown skin of the native residents she became acquainted with. The subject of these works revolves around a newfound friend’s father. Forsberg's works are reflective of her community. The experience shared—the memories that are held.