Cajsa Holmstrand has always used a common name for her works. She calls her pictures and sculptures “Relations”. She has been dealing with relations between a different number of cubes which have created a series of events between themselves and the observer. But at the same time, since the 70’s been interested in more obvious and measurable relations.
Her thoughts have been occupied with Pythagoras and his famous theorem about the relations between the two smaller sides and the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, and the possibility of making the theorem valid for a three-dimensional image as well. To prove the contrary, i.e. that a similar mathematical relationship in three or more dimensions is absolutely impossible, has occupied mathematicians for centuries.
The problem has since 1637 been called Fermat’s enigma, a mystery that has remained unsolved for more than 300 years. It is now agreed that such a solution is impossible, but as an artist, Cajsa Holmstrand is still as an artist stimulated by the events and complications that occur.
It began about twenty years ago with a simple model, a cube, where the basic thoughts of Pythagoras´s theorem were indicated on all sides, in the way the theorem had been depicted for thousands of years. Her idea was to approach the problem in a practical way, to unveil the form piece by piece. She wanted to remove each triangular part one by one to make visible what takes place inside “the cube of the hypotenuse” which in the mind of Cajsa Holmstrand replaces the square of the two-dimensional version. And so she did. She created thirteen granite cubes from which an increasing number of tetrahedrons were sawed away to gradually reveal the inside of the cube. These sculptures were shown at the Gallery Bleue in Stockholm in 1991.
Despite the rational method, some uncertainties about the inner hidden form remained. A clarification was needed and was eventually presented at an exhibition at the Gallery Aronowitsch in Stockholm in 1998. The exhibition was based on a number of objects made of acrylic glass where the now-visible events inside the cubes were described with strings running through the objects.
Selected Exhibitions
2022
Norrköping Non-Figuration 2022, Sweden
2021
Relationships, Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden
Group exhibition together with the artists Elli Hemberg (1896–1994), Olle Bærtling (1911–1981), Lars Erik Falk (1922–2018), Kurt Simons (born 1940) och Anna Nyberg (born 1966).
2018
Galleri Astley, Uttersberg, Sweden
Gislaveds konsthall, Sweden, together with the artist Karl-Erik Forsberg
2013
Galleri Strömbom, Uppsala, Sweden
2012
Window Exhibition, Själagårdsgatan 15, Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden
Åminne Bruksmusem, Sweden, group exhibition together with Einar Höste, Carl Magnus och Torsten Ridell.
2010
Nordens ljus, Stockholm, Sweden, exhibition together with Einar Höste.
Konstforum, Norrköping, Sweden
Thielska galleriet, Sweden, group exhibition
2009
Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm, Sweden
2007
Window Exhibition, Själagårdsgatan 15, Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden
Group exhibition – Galleri Astley´s exhibition in China, 2006-2007, Two Lines Gallery in Beijing.
2006
Skövde Art Hall, Sweden
Galleri Imma, Mariestad, Sweden
2005
The Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm
2004
Galleri Lars, Karlstad, Sweden
2001
Galerie Aronwitsch, Stockholm, Sweden
Gallerie Smedhamre, Uppsala, Sweden
1999
Galleri Astley in Uttersberg, Sweden
1996-1998
Galerie Aronwitsch Stockholm, Sweden
1993
Galerie Lilla Bleue, Stockholm, Sweden
1992
Ars Nova Galleri Gothenburg, Sweden
1989
Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm, Sweden
Ars Nova Galleri in Gothenburg, Sweden
1988
Sundsvall´s Museum of Art
1986
Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm, Sweden
1985
Norrköping´s Museum of Art, Sweden
1983
Galerie Bleue Stockholm, Sweden
1979
Galerie Bleue, Stockholm, Sweden
1978
Galleri Thelander Stockholm, Sweden
1977
Galleri Ferm Malmö, Sweden
Selected Public Commissions in Sweden
The Hospital of Huddinge 1981
The Hospital of Karolinska, Stockholm 1986
Post terminal Gothenburg 1986
Akademiska sjukhuset Uppsala (hospital) 1988
Post terminal Helsingborg 1989
The bar of the theatre, Stockholm´s Stadsteater 1990
Knutpunkten Helsingborg´s station 1991
The University of Luleå 1993
Stureby School Stockholm 2000
Awards
The Baertling foundation´s special prize 2011
Artist of the Quarter
- Cajsa Holmstrand – Artist of the Quarter autumn 2018 – Gallery Astley (presentation in Swedish)
- Cajsa Holmstrand – Artist of the Quarter – summer 2007, The old city of Stockholm (presention in Swedish)
- Cajsa Holmstrand – Artist of the Quarter 2005 – The Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm
The content of this biography is updated on behalf of the artist.