Don Juan in the Village, curated by Bjarne Melgaard, 8 May – 13 June 2010
Lars Bohman Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhiibition curated by Bjarne Melgaard. The title of the show, Don Juan in the Village, comes from Jane DeLynn's novel from the 1980's where the author describes a young woman's search for love and confirmation and where self-confidence and egocentrism are accompanied by deep insecurity and loneliness.
Bjarne Melgaard creates an encounter between contemporary artists and some of art history's great stars. The show includes works by Hans Bellmer, Jean Cocteau, William Nelson Copley, Bernadette Corporation, Marie-Louise Ekman, David Hammons, Richard Hawkins, Sophie von Hellerman, Yasamin Keshtkar, Charles Mayton, Marilyn Minter, Edvard Munch, Carissa Rodriguez and Emily Sundblad. In spite the different media, Bjarne Melgaard finds common grounds that run through video, painting, drawing, photography, collage and sculpture, from the 1890's up until today.
The great paradoxes in life, birth and death, love and hate, happiness and sorrow, are all reflected in the exhibited works. Just as the two sides of DeLynn's character, which carries both self-confidence and anguish, there are in the exhibited works a strength and a nerve that show that lust and energy coexist side by side with doubt and agony. The conditions of being human are examined and it is highly surrealistic, sexual and existential.
The exhibited masterpieces by Munch, 4 prints and 3 watercolours, executed between 1891 and 1922, communicate with von Hellerman's paintings, which just like the Munch works breathe spontaneity and expressivity. Bernadette Corporation and David Hammons offer the viewer a pause to reflect upon contemporary society, its values, politics and aesthetics. The surreal sensuality of Bellmer and Cocteau continues in the work by Copley who adds irony and humour, and who just like Ekman, whose genius imagery speaks about human strengths and weaknesses, adds a certain amount of criticism of society. In front of the collages by Hawkins, the viewer is obliged to redefine what seems obvious at a first glance and there is a connection with the painting by Minter, whose work is filled with contradictions and erotic sub tones. Keshtkar work with extremes, visually captivating but psychologically charged motives fill the canvas. Also Mayton's work are spanning between opposites in their abstraction, whereas Rodriguez lets the material and the surface cooperate to create a tension between the innate qualities of the textile and the printed pattern. The artist/gallerist Sundblad offers a mental somersault when she participate with a self-portrait, since she seeks to work liberated from the restrictions of the notion of identity.
Thanks to Morten Zondag at Kaare Berntsen, Kayla Guthrie at Bjarne Melgaard Studio and Ina Johannesen.
For further information and press images, please contact the gallery.
Lars Bohman Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhiibition curated by Bjarne Melgaard. The title of the show, Don Juan in the Village, comes from Jane DeLynn's novel from the 1980's where the author describes a young woman's search for love and confirmation and where self-confidence and egocentrism are accompanied by deep insecurity and loneliness.
Bjarne Melgaard creates an encounter between contemporary artists and some of art history's great stars. The show includes works by Hans Bellmer, Jean Cocteau, William Nelson Copley, Bernadette Corporation, Marie-Louise Ekman, David Hammons, Richard Hawkins, Sophie von Hellerman, Yasamin Keshtkar, Charles Mayton, Marilyn Minter, Edvard Munch, Carissa Rodriguez and Emily Sundblad. In spite the different media, Bjarne Melgaard finds common grounds that run through video, painting, drawing, photography, collage and sculpture, from the 1890's up until today.
The great paradoxes in life, birth and death, love and hate, happiness and sorrow, are all reflected in the exhibited works. Just as the two sides of DeLynn's character, which carries both self-confidence and anguish, there are in the exhibited works a strength and a nerve that show that lust and energy coexist side by side with doubt and agony. The conditions of being human are examined and it is highly surrealistic, sexual and existential.
The exhibited masterpieces by Munch, 4 prints and 3 watercolours, executed between 1891 and 1922, communicate with von Hellerman's paintings, which just like the Munch works breathe spontaneity and expressivity. Bernadette Corporation and David Hammons offer the viewer a pause to reflect upon contemporary society, its values, politics and aesthetics. The surreal sensuality of Bellmer and Cocteau continues in the work by Copley who adds irony and humour, and who just like Ekman, whose genius imagery speaks about human strengths and weaknesses, adds a certain amount of criticism of society. In front of the collages by Hawkins, the viewer is obliged to redefine what seems obvious at a first glance and there is a connection with the painting by Minter, whose work is filled with contradictions and erotic sub tones. Keshtkar work with extremes, visually captivating but psychologically charged motives fill the canvas. Also Mayton's work are spanning between opposites in their abstraction, whereas Rodriguez lets the material and the surface cooperate to create a tension between the innate qualities of the textile and the printed pattern. The artist/gallerist Sundblad offers a mental somersault when she participate with a self-portrait, since she seeks to work liberated from the restrictions of the notion of identity.
Thanks to Morten Zondag at Kaare Berntsen, Kayla Guthrie at Bjarne Melgaard Studio and Ina Johannesen.
For further information and press images, please contact the gallery.