BASEL.- Paintings from artists Lars Christensen, Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Per Mårtensson of the neighboring cities of Copenhagen (DK) and Malmö (SE) are gathered together for the first time. Each has his own individual style and manner of expressing himself. Nils Erik Gjerdevik painted abstract worlds and universes with two strongly contrasting colors while Lars Christensen invites us to see light and colors through three dimensional painting-objects. Per Mårtensson presents us with a set of reflecting visors, allowing us to see only what others may see.
Small format oil paintings by Gjerdevik are exhibited on a long wall, displaying positive and negative space, precise brushstrokes and amorphous shapes that invite us to navigate through different planes, structures and travel, imagine scenarios and free ourselves of boundaries. The shapes appear as if frozen in transit while moving in globular structures.
Christensen’s acrylic paintings and works on paper bring light and lightness into our worlds. Protruding paint of various colors on a monochrome background invite us to see nuances and question what is color and how do light and shadows influence it. The Danish artist continues to present paint through the support structure and suggests we look carefully to see the transformation of color by the effects of gravity or closeness to another color – gold near copper and silver, white near light pastel roses and blues, white paint on white paper… Reflection is needed to grasp what is presented in the object-paintings.
Mårtensson analyzes and photographs his surroundings and the presentation of our society, cultures and environments. Seeing and being seen have preoccupied him for years, not as a person but as a part of our daily lives. Noticing our neighbors, neighborhoods, urban centers and objects to determine shapes, shadows, patterns, he has extracted abstract bodies of work from these inspirations. Slightly iridescent
colors on two small format linen canvases represent flattened privacy face visors. Scrolling the internet for images, he focused on the reflective colors of these accessories worn by people wishing privacy or protection from the sun. Flattening them out introduces other views: the illusion of afternoon and late evening scenes towards nature, the sea or diluted hallucinations. Pleasant reverie is in the air and one forgets, as in all his subjects, the origin of the inspiration.
The practices of Nils Erik Gjerdevik (1962 – 2016) included paintings, works on paper and ceramics. His works are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Denmark; Aros – Århus Kunstmuseum, Århus, DK; Bergen Art Museum; National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, NO; Danish and Norwegian Arts Councils; Gothenburg Museum of Art; and Malmö Art Museum, SE.
Lars Christensen’s (*1972) paintings are in the permanent collections of Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Tapiola, FI; Danish Art Foundation, Ny Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Cultural Fund, Nykredit Collection, Copenhagen, DK.
Per Mårtensson’s (*1969) paintings are part of the collections of F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, CH, Jumex Collection, Mexico City, MX; Malmö Konstmuseum, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, The Swedish Arts Council and Vikingsbergs Konstmuseum, SE; Munich Re, DE.
