Erica Nyholm was born in 1982 in Finland. Nyholm has a BA in photography from the Turku Arts Academy, 2008, and a MA in photography from Aalto University – School of Arts, Design and Architecture, 2013.
In 2012 she was one of the young artists reported to Paris Photo by Christian Caujolle for the Young Talents section.
She use photography with a great sense of direction and pictorial composition, in the wake of the portraiture tradition that has its roots in the dawn of art history. She portrays herself or her family and friends, recreating powerful contemporary family portraits. Erica talks to us about social traditions and belonging to a group. In her stories, she concentrates a strong presence of characters with a (presumed) baggage of parental ties that every family carries with it, especially in the inter-generational relationship between women. In a suspended time, he shows us a private album that manages to recreate intimate atmospheres that we all know well and of which we become involuntary witnesses and actors thanks to the effect of the “estrangement effect”, a theatrical technique of direct involvement of the public, to make it more critical, defined by Bertold Brecht, breaking through what in jargon is called the fourth wall, the imaginary division between actors and spectators. But at the same time, in Erica Nyholm’s works there is a sense of the familiar, like when one arrives, expected, late for an appointment. Almost those of her own characters were waiting for us for the showdown. Each of us thus somehow becomes part of these somewhat disturbing stories, albeit in the highly controlled aesthetics, in the role of friends, children, relatives or parents. Judges or accomplices. Each with its own weight of memories, ties, affections and, sometimes, pains. Each with their own script to recite. It goes on stage.
In her mise-en-scene based practice she focuses on family relationships. Selected solo exhibitions: Blue Scene, Gallery Kluuvi, Helsinki, 2014 and A Room of One´s Own II, Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, 2012. Selected group exhibitions: Minän teatteri, Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Turku, 2017, Gestos Hacia uno Mismo, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Teneriffa, 2015 and Encontros da Imagem de Braga, Braga, 2014. Nyholm was selected as a winner of spanish photography prize called Pilar Citoler international Prize for Photography 2015.
Her current a solo show ongoes at the moment in Sala Vimcorsa, Cordoba, next solo show is in Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, summer 2018. She has worked in residency programs such as Cité des Arts Paris 2016 and 2013, and Pole Image 2013.
