The Way We Live Now: Maria Clemen, NYC

Maria Clemen is a Scandinavian artist (born in Sweden and raised in Denmark) who works in London. A print-maker and collagist, she combines her media to create works that are both lyrical and subversive.

Clouds of butterflies cut from discarded betting-slips and old lottery tickets hint at the fragility, and perhaps even the absurdity, of hope - but also at its vitality. Quasi-heraldic representations of birds and beasts carry rich, if impossible-to-fix, associations from history and mythology. Is the crowned crow an image of power or folly? Or both? Or neither?

 In Clemen's artistic universe all these beguiling images are held by a wonderfully unforced clarity of composition and a command of bold color. It is a vision that, for all its individuality, draws cleverly upon the recent traditions of Scandinavian art and design.

Clemen's art is wry, elegant and insidious.

This is her first New York show.