Glenn Sorensen
13 Jun - 26 Jul 2008
GLENN SORENSEN
"Black Paintings"
June 13 - July 26 2008
It is a great pleasure for Galleri Nicolai Wallner to present Black Paintings, an exhibition with new works by Glenn Sorensen.
Glenn Sorensen finds his motifs in his direct personal environment; two people standing on the beach or an empty can holding a flower.
The figures in the paintings are often placed slightly off centre, half cut off by the edge of the canvas, giving the works an immediacy of a snapshot or a quick glance. Often repeating the same scene more than once, seeing it from different angles or making minute changes, the artist seem to have an almost meditative approach to painting. Sorensen works figuratively but also pushes his images towards a two-dimensional abstraction. Shapes are slightly blurred as if moving in front of your eyes and a real sense of perspective is distorted by the empty space the figures seemingly inhabit.
The colors employed are dreamy and drowsy, rendered in lush shades of lavender, pink and light turquoise on a dark background that drains the vitality of the delicate figures set against it. The contrast between light and darkness creates unnatural phosphorescence, a peculiar, sleepy way of seeing the world. This look is only further enhanced by the blissful domesticity of the motifs. Like the opaque remnants of a dream they play with your senses and linger in your mind long after you have experienced them.
A feeling of weariness marks this series of portraits and household still-lives. A certain melancholy that is reflected in the various titles with which Sorensen describes his work; Sick, Dented and Waiting. Also in the actual size of the paintings the artist steers away from the grandiose. Instead the works appear small and intimate as they hang sparingly in the white gallery space. They resemble small windows or perhaps even exclamation marks as the rigorousness of the composition and the consistent use of the same colors somehow seem to belie any reading of the works that focus on their smallness and delicacy. It looks like the artist has managed to find strength in weakness, giving his paintings a mysterious aura that inevitably attracts the attention of the viewer.
"Black Paintings"
June 13 - July 26 2008
It is a great pleasure for Galleri Nicolai Wallner to present Black Paintings, an exhibition with new works by Glenn Sorensen.
Glenn Sorensen finds his motifs in his direct personal environment; two people standing on the beach or an empty can holding a flower.
The figures in the paintings are often placed slightly off centre, half cut off by the edge of the canvas, giving the works an immediacy of a snapshot or a quick glance. Often repeating the same scene more than once, seeing it from different angles or making minute changes, the artist seem to have an almost meditative approach to painting. Sorensen works figuratively but also pushes his images towards a two-dimensional abstraction. Shapes are slightly blurred as if moving in front of your eyes and a real sense of perspective is distorted by the empty space the figures seemingly inhabit.
The colors employed are dreamy and drowsy, rendered in lush shades of lavender, pink and light turquoise on a dark background that drains the vitality of the delicate figures set against it. The contrast between light and darkness creates unnatural phosphorescence, a peculiar, sleepy way of seeing the world. This look is only further enhanced by the blissful domesticity of the motifs. Like the opaque remnants of a dream they play with your senses and linger in your mind long after you have experienced them.
A feeling of weariness marks this series of portraits and household still-lives. A certain melancholy that is reflected in the various titles with which Sorensen describes his work; Sick, Dented and Waiting. Also in the actual size of the paintings the artist steers away from the grandiose. Instead the works appear small and intimate as they hang sparingly in the white gallery space. They resemble small windows or perhaps even exclamation marks as the rigorousness of the composition and the consistent use of the same colors somehow seem to belie any reading of the works that focus on their smallness and delicacy. It looks like the artist has managed to find strength in weakness, giving his paintings a mysterious aura that inevitably attracts the attention of the viewer.