Gallery Pascale
History
Pascale Cottard-Olsson is a French woman who married a Swede and also happened to fall in love with Swedish design. Which in 1998 resulted in her starting of Gallery Pascale. Since 2000 it is mainly a gallery focusing on design: furniture, ceramics, textiles, glass, illustrations and graphic design. The purpose is to present and promote work by designers firstly from the Nordic countries but also work by international designers. The creators and artists are highly educated and belong to the elite. Among exhibitors we would like to mention: François Bauchet, Eric Jourdan, Mattali Crasset and Arik Levy from France; Wake Up from Japan; Ilkka Suppanen from Finland; A&E Design, Owe Gustafson, Birgitta Hahn, Tom Hedqvist, Johan Huldt, Anna Kraitz, Jonas Lindvall, Eva Schildt, Per B Sundberg, Mats Theselius, Thomas Sandell, Anna von Schewen, Björn Dahlström, Fredrik Mattson, Alexander Lervik, Pia Amsell, Mattias Bakhuizen, Thomas Bernstrand, Louise Hederström, Ulrika Mårtensson, Carina Seth Andersson, Sara Szyber, Pia Törnell, Barbro Wesslander and Monica Förster from Sweden.
Thematic exhibitions also prevail in the gallery: Rosa, Rosae, Rosam (2000) showed vases by female designers; Bä bä (2002) concerned the world of small children; 60+ (2004) related to famous Swedish designers who were more than 60 years old. A repeted theme is Stockholm je t’aime, when various designers (included graphic designers) freely associate on why they single out Stockholm as especially loveable.
Gallery Pascale is also a little shop selling unique design objects in limited series; the gallery and Pascale is the producer of these charming gift articles. Besides – Gallery Pascale is the only real design-gallery in Sweden. (A ”side-effect” to this and an addition is the design-salon which Pascale started five years ago, in a very French manner, to open up discussions around what design is all about – usually connected to an exhibition at the gallery; the salon is led by Pascale herself and her friends, the professor eremita of design Kerstin Wickman and the fashion- and designeditor Lotta Lewenhaupt.)
Among the prestigeous customers of Gallery Pascale are several collectors and some unique objects in addition are also found in the prominent design-collections at The National Museum of Arts and Craft in Stockholm and Oslo, and at Röhsska, The Arts & Crafts Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Biography:
French-born Pascale Cottard-Olsson has been living in Sweden since 1993. Before meeting her future husband in Germany she studied in France and in the US (an MBA at The University of Nebraska); after her marriage she decided to concentrate on her passions: art and design. In 1996 she found the ideal place for a small gallery at Humlegårdsgatan (where the gallery still recides) and went on exhibiting contemporary art by French artists; after showing French designer Eric Jourdan’s work (in 1997) she decided to concentrate on design. Through 1998 and from 2000 until present she developed her gallery to be totally dedicated on design.
Pascale Cottard-Olsson is not only a gallerist and producer, she has also curated other exhibitions internationally. During several years she was the curator for the Nordic countries at the Design Biennale in Saint Etienne, France, since the start in 1998. In 2000 she curated and supervised Angle Suedois exhibited in Saint Etienne, Paris, Caen and Nice in France plus Bourlingster (Luxembourg) and Athens (Greece). In 2002 she promoted female Swedish designers for the exhibition Sweden@home in France. In Sweden she took the initiative for the production of the book 17 Swedish Designers (Langenskiold 2007), which is all about 17 female designers – well established and up and coming – when the book was published the design-team Front wasn’t yet as famous as today; the publication resulted in an exhibition which has been touring the US – in september 2011 the exhibition will be shown at the Formex-fair in Stockholm.
While working with the gallery, taking care of her family (a loving husband, two gorgeous sons and a very sweet dog) Pascale is anxious about completing her Master of Design History at Konstfack, The University of Arts & Crafts, in Stockholm.
