PRESS releases 2010
No press release in English for the current exhibition
PRESS RELEASES 2009
PRESS RELEASE - SEPTEMBER 12TH 2009
The exhibition THE WONDERFUL - by Maja Gade Christensen, Berit Dröse, Torunn Haugan,
Anders Reventlov Larsen og Jonas Palm
A CHEERFUL AND TRIUMPHANT HOMAGE TO 'THE WONDERFUL'
"The exhibition THE WONDERFUL is an homage - at its deepest. We celebrate! Everyone in his or her way and with different thoughts behind. The baroque is inevitable. The works of art are raw pearls which triumph cheerfully - over the truth in its own ambiguous messages", the five artists Maja Gade Christensen, Berit Dröse, Torunn Kjørsvik Haugan, Anders Reventlov Larsen, and Jonas Palm say about their current show at Kunstpakhuset.
In this exhibition the young artists provide with their varied, individual, and current answers to the classical, philosophical question, "What is happiness?". In a current and modern pop cultural context and frame of mind the question sound like this, 'What is 'The Wonderful'?', if anything. The art works of the exhibition are seen as an examination and a perspective way of looking at the fleeting concept and phenomenon of 'happiness'. That the concept of 'happiness' is under constant displacement and transformation is hinted by the glittering and cheerfully ironical and ambiguous tittle 'the wonderful'.
- "The tittle of the exhibition THE WONDERFUL is enormously ambitious and filled with self-assurance", the artists say. "It is a self-assurance which very much appeals to becoming blown apart. You are encouraged to criticize unless the exhibition is totally waterproof and all the works of art are wonderful - discussion free wonderful. Of course it is impossible to stage a discussion free exhibition. There will always be something to discuss or pick on. Maybe it is not our intention to produce a 'wonderful' exhibition. Maybe the exhibition is making an ironical distance to the concept of 'wonderful' so you can look at the constellation of art and 'the wonderful' as something comical.
The participant artists are all from Det Jyske Kunstakademi (DJK) class of 2009. Maja Gade Christensen, Berit Dröse, Torunn Kjørsvik Haugan, Anders Reventlov Larsen, and Jonas Palm all have been very productive as well as active at the young and experimental art scene of Århus since their admission to DJK. They have exhibited at different galleries including galleries run by artists themselves, and they have joined with artistic and activist projects in public space.
The exhibition THE WONDERFUL present photography, drawing, painting, video, and installation. Maja Gade Christensen shows drawings with constructive inspiration and references, Berit Dröse presents photography with atmosphere and references to a classical, romantic landscape tradition, Torunn Kjørsvik Haugan provides color photographs of sewn objects with references to pop art, Anders Reventlov Larsen makes fetiches via photos, drawings, and paintings of different objects, and Jonas Palm pays homage in photography, drawing, and video to the wonderfully unpredictable, the banal and destructive. The many art works of the exhibition call the seen and the depicted in question. Is the depicted what it pretends to be?
PRESS RELEASE - FEBRUARY 14TH 2009
The exhibition EXPANSION - by Bjarne W. Troelstrup, Dorte Lausten and Jacob Noel
Illusory and architectonic spaces
The artists Bjarne W. Troelstrup, Dorte Lausten, and Jacob Noel unfold the concept of space at the exhibition 'Expansion' that represents tradition and breakthrough within constructive art.
It is bright colors, clear lines, illusory and architectonic spaces that unfold at the new exhibition of Kunstpakhuset, named 'Expansion', which focuses on the expressions of constructive art and idiom. The artists of the exhibition, Bjarne W. Troelstrup, Dorte Lausten, and Jacob Noel represent tradition as well as new experiments within constructive art. The three artists work in different ways with the dimensions and qualities of artistic space. Their paintings, sculptures, photographs, and architectural installations as well as design installations show a special interest in the concept of construction.
Abstract-constructive painting
Bjarne W. Troelstrup represents tradition within abstract-constructive art. His paintings and graphic arts contain the characteristic precise forms of constructive art, that is bright colors and simple abstract-geometric forms. With these few esthetic means he creates an illusion of space and movement in the pictures. 2009 Bjarne W. Troelstrup is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a painter. His paintings keep returning to the graphic and visual themes, such as foldings and tangram patterns (inspired by the game by the same name). With limited colored bands and surfaces he builds refined spaces and compositions in his paintings.
Functional painting
Dorte Lausten pragmatic and subtle breaks down the illusory spaces in the painting. She makes a kind of 3D painting that you literally can be inside. She thinks that painting must fulfill actual needs - for instance to sit down. Her newest installations, which she has named 'functional painting' break down the traditional relationship between painting and space. Instead of making color and forms remain mounted on the wall she has designed functional paintings that quite easily can be transformed into colorful furniture in the room. This can be shelves, work tables, and benches as colored MDF plates put together by specially constructed "furniture-units" (clear acrylic blocks). Her newest concept, which she has developed further from 'painting as design', was presented in 2008. Dorte Lausten has received economical support from The Danish Arts Council for this development and the production of her functional painting which is shown for the first time at 'Expansion'.
Architectonic forms, sculpture and photography
Jacob Noel very often integrates different artistic genres in his installations, that is sculpture, photography, and drawings. The theme, which is seen throughout his works, is the interest in spatiality and 'spaces in between'. His architectonic sculptures and photography capture in different ways actual forms and details in cities and milieus of today. He sees the spatiality of architecture and the city as something universal - a language that is seen more than it is spoken.
He gets hold of the outer rim of concepts such as scale, spaciousness, and functionality. These concepts are normally tied to an architectural practice. With this optic - a little dislocated - he describes another world than the one associated with architecture. Time and places are expressed in fragments and his work is an esthetic materialization of something fleeting.