12.05.2012 - 30.06.2012

We are very pleased to present a solo exhibition with new works by Nils Erik Gjerdevik. The exhibition consists of four new large-scale paintings as well as a drawing installation. The works in the show are all characterized by Gjerdevik’s consistent investigations of the potential of abstraction. The paintings contain a myriad of details and a graphic expression typical of Gjerdevik’s earlier praxis but simultaneously they reveal an element of expressive wildness marking a new beginning in his work.

The graphic elements in the new paintings express an organic force and the system is not always easily decoded when shapes arise and branch out on the canvas. The spontaneity is, however, always subject to a formal system suspended between the playful and controlled.

In a large orange painting that holds a central position in the show, a wave curves across the canvas. From a distance the composition seems fairly simple and comprehensible, but from a closer viewpoint it reveals a myriad of details. By letting an apparently simple form, the wave, act as the framework for endless possibilities and details, Gjerdevik points to the complexity of the formal approach.

In two black paintings the decoding of the works takes place in an interaction between the black surface and the underlying luminous colors – an experience stretched between the positive and the negative depending on ones focus on either the colors or the blackness. In the correlation of color and blackness Gjerdevik stresses the inherent light in the dark or black. The black paintings are made in a process in which the colors are applied as the first layer. Afterwards the black top layer is applied in a carefully planned manner allowing the bottom layers of color to appear in detailed patterns and lines. This technique does not leave room for retouching and is thus highly demanding in terms of both planning and execution.

Nils Erik Gjerdevik is known for his non-figurative paintings, works on paper, and sculptures that simultaneously scrutinize and push the limits of the conventions they are subject to. His praxis can be characterized as a conceptual investigation of the very preconditions of the existence and potential of the respective media. The works of Gjerdevik are created in a constant dialogue with the art historical tradition, as his use of e.g. the linear structures of constructivism, the arabesques of art nouveau, or the grid formations of minimal art form the core of his works and at the same time are challenged and taken up to revision.

Nils Erik Gjerdevik has two other upcoming solo exhibitions at Kunsthallen Brandts in Odense from 12.08.2012 – 27.01.2013 and at the Utzon Center in Ålborg from 20.06 – 30.08 2013.