Alberte Tranberg
A third thing. Some topping out

November 15 - December 21, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, November 15, 5-7 pm

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Matéria is pleased to present Alberte Tranberg’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, A third thing. Some topping out, opening on Friday, November 15, from 5-7 pm.

 

A third thing. Some topping out is the final iteration of a series of spatial contemplations Tranberg has created in the pursuit of converging one's sense of body with the built environment. Through tactile gestures in steel, bronze, and ceramic shell, Tranberg draws a landscape that honors transitional periods in the wake of great loss. Grounded in craft, Tranberg primarily works with structural steel, reflecting familiar architectural forms and textures introducing moments of malleability to challenge notions of rigidity, weight, light, and movement.

 

Responding to the conventions and properties of materials and making, and with this new body of work presented at Matéria, Tranberg is applying her methodologies to the foundry to challenge the principles of the classical sculpture medium of bronze and lost-wax casting. In this exhibition Tranberg engages with the tree as a symbol of opportunity and progress, halting its idealization in a porcelain shell—a material often associated with temporality. The polished bronze fragments of a blueprint, recontextualized to evoke the fleeting nature of place and memory. Situated within steel silhouettes of rock formations and houses placed in the gallery as signage in passing, mark a transition of a “before” and “after."

 

A third thing. Some topping out is an inserted sentence and a momentary salute, as the title insinuates, in memory of a person who used to define her lived environment.

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ALBERTE TRANBERG

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Alberte Tranberg (b. 1990, Copenhagen, DK) received an MFA in Metalsmithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and currently lives and works in Detroit.

 

A trained metal fabricator with several years of experience, Tranberg explores the performative nature of interior objects through gentle architectural interventions. Her approach to making is informed by her intimate knowledge of materials and tools, while disrupting traditional craft narrative.

 

Tranberg's works have been presented in solo and two-person exhibitions at Devening Projects, Chicago,IL; Ornamentum Gallery, Hudson, NY; Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit, MI; BULK Space, Detroit, MI; and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark. Tranberg has recently designed a series of award-winning kitchen cabinet handles for Reform CPH’s Atelier Collection, which launched June 2023.

 

Additionally, Alberte Tranberg collaborates with artist Iris Eichenberg as BERG+BERG, with objects presented at Salon Art + Design with Ornamentum in NYC and Design Miami, FL in 2021. Tranberg is a 2016 Fullbright recipient and was awarded the Gary S and Patricia J Griffin Scholarship.

 

Tranberg's latest solo exhibition is made possible with support from Merchant L.F. Foghts Foundation, Knud Højgaards Foundation, and Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation. The artist also thanks the staff and facilities at College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where the majority of the work has been produced.