Afternoon at the Fringe
22 June – 22 July 2007
“Roommates”
Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present Danish artist Julie Nord’s first UK solo exhibition Afternoon at the Fringe from 22 June to 21 July. Since completing her education at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2001 Nord has received tremendous national and international success with recent exhibitions at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark 21C Museum, Kentucky, Malmö Kunsthal, Creative Center, Shanghai and Singapore Art Museum to name but a few.
Julie Nord’s ink drawings and watercolours have achieved critical significance due to their exploration of a surreal universe. These scenes appear familiar to us through our recollection of childhood literature, a land of fairytales and fantasy, and yet they are darkly resurrected from this period of innocence – appearing almost apocalyptic in their kitsch-gothic reproduction. Nord’s interpretative works create a space between the unquestioning innocence of youth and the cynical awareness that develops from maturity. Still the works remain inherently fictional due to Nord’s play on proportion and caricature style. The viewer is lured into a false sense of security then shocked by the newly sinister scene. The effect is one of entrapment – simultaneously captivating and disturbing. Nord’s drawings conjure a nostalgic past poisoned by the unsettling reality awoken to in adulthood.
Julie Nord has enjoyed global success with major group projects including Through the Rabbit Hole: Sleights of Scale and Flights of Fancy at 21C Museum, Kentucky; Girlpower & Boyhood at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; MALM 2 at Malmö Kunsthal, Sweden; Fiction@Love: Forever Young Land at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; Ultra New Vision of Contemporary Art at the Singapore Art Museum and Fairy Tales Forever at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark. Solo shows include Elsewhere at Mogadishni; The Cycle at la Caixa Foundation, Spain and From Wonderland with Love at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark.