Month: April 2010
Janne Räisänen
Janne Räisänen (born 1971) is a sensitively rough
and ready, laid-back pedantic painter whose
themes come from popular culture, politics,
erotica, phenomenology and the pinnacles of art history alike.
The scale of his works can range from a small
note to a nine-metre diary watercolour or from a
pocket-sized painting to a three-metre panorama of the throbbing city night.
When considering Janne Räisänen’s paintings, one
cannot see behind the corner. A surprise will no
doubt be waiting there. These works combine in a
strange way momentariness – the moments of
experience and painting – with permanence – the
enduring nature of the uttered word, the painted line.
In addition to the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts,
Janne Räisänen has studied at the Städelschule in
Frankfurt, Germany. In 1999, he was elected Young
Artist of the Year, together with Janne Kaitala
and Jukka Korkeila. He has also been rector of
the Free Art School in Helsinki.
Don’t Piss on Me and Tell Me It’s Raining ////
Rene Holm // Lose
R O A
ROA’s eagerly anticipated UK solo debut opens in London this spring to exhibit his unique portrayal of large scale urban wildlife, disquietly cohabiting city streets, hand painted in his distinctive black and white style.
ROA started painting abandoned buildings and warehouses in the isolated industrial outskirts of his hometown – Ghent, Belgium. Fixating on the animals he found there; the wildlife became the central subject matter of his work, inspired by their clever ability to adapt into scavengers in order to survive. He used the dilapidated, coarse interiors and exteriors of the unyielding landscape as a canvas to portray his large-scale creatures.
Roa filled a vast abandoned warehouse complex of different chambers and exteriors with a menagerie of large-scale animals, creating an impressive spray painted zoo of city scavengers.
His obsession went global when he took to the streets of New York, London, Berlin, Warsaw and Paris, prolifically painting his trademark cross sectioned animals wherever he went, locating them where they naturally invade the main city streets with their quiet yet powerful presence.
Pure Evil Gallery is proud and extremely excited to present a new body of original artwork by ROA this spring, complete with street works in the local area. Look out for a new ROA city fox appearing on a street near you.
Studio Visit // Jonas Pihl
Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls) ///
Copenhagen Graffiti (Walls) //
“Bland Selv!” //
Zak Kitnick & Fredrik Værslev //
Johan Berggren Gallery is pleased to present the work of two emerging artists, Zak Kitnick (US) and Fredrik Værslev (NO), in an exhibition curated by Geir Haraldseth (NO). The didactic desire to contrast and compare the work of two different artists is hard to avoid, in particular when the two share a wealth of references and interests, while still differing in methods and ideologies. Both artists have used the physical gallery space as more than just a staging area for the works, as Kitnick tackles the walls and the window of the gallery, and Værslev the terrazzo floor and the carpet. This is not just a simple continuation of concerns raised by artists working with institutional critique, examining and mining the mechanisms of the gallery space and the art world, but a fusing of, and simultaneous critique, of architecture, design, art, and decor.
The first room is directly linked to minimalism and the works echo the concerns of scale and the human body, creating sculptural interactions that also reference a history of painting, both of high and vernacular, and architecture. Kitnick has installed four sets of blinds in relation to the window, creating a sculptural grid that filters the light, obscures the space, and intervenes with the architecture, while Værslev’s three large rectangular paintings all stem from an illusionist insistence on turning the canvas and paint into stone, using methods and techniques that range from Jackson Pollock to graffiti.
The second room continues Værslev’s floor fetish and is made in collaboration with Ståle Vold (NO). The carpet as canvas creates a dialog between Vold and Værslev, once teacher and student, revealing a journey through recent art history, while transforming the idea of the auteur artist into the work of a design team. Kitnick’s fascination with design is revealed in his Donald Judd inspired paintings based on a new design for a brownie tin, making sure to maximize crust. The concept of making life easier through design is examined in the paintings and parallels the idea of progress in painting and art.
The two artists are not timid or discreet about their references or their passions, creating room for questions that reveal more than a mere faithful approach to painting, institutional critique, appropriation, minimalism, or any other art historical trope would. Kitnick and Værslev have an irreverent, yet serious approach to art and the way art is projected and thought of in the world at large, and they brings those ideas and concepts back into the gallery.