NILS STÆRK
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Art Fairs
  • News
  • Contact
Cart
0 items €
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
Nils Erik Gjerdevik
March 27 - May 22, 2021

Nils Erik Gjerdevik

Past exhibition
  • Exhibition text
  • Installation views
  • Works
  • Artist Biography

  • Nils Erik Gjerdevik

    March 27 – May 22, 2021
    Glentevej 49, Copenhagen

    ‘In my pictures, besides, there are many small forms in vast empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty planes, everything that is bare and empty always impresses me ... I get my ideas from the simplest things. I prefer a plate out of which a peasant is eating his soup to the ridiculously ornate plates wealthy people use ...’
    (Miró, Jacques Dopagne, page 21)

     

    Gjerdevik’s works derive from a more extensive figurative universe and would seem to possess an almost Gaudian method of creating architecture where the building structure with its catenary arches and hyperbolic paraboloids doubles as both structure and ornamented tableau. Architecture is, after all, the most obvious analogy to Gjerdevik’s practice. Not merely by virtue of the relationship of painting to scale and the serial progression of his works on paper. To Gjerdevik, architecture proved an eternal source of inspiration and like structural engineering – man’s point of reference in nature – his works activate a physical and psychological relationship between space, picture plane, and viewer. By virtue of its scale, the main work in the exhibition could almost be characterised as a building structure. Its sheer size calls for more than a wall to show it. The painting requires a room to itself – if not an entire storey. Gjerdevik’s works usually embody potential for his paintings to be shown in major architectural and social contexts.

    Read more

    The exhibition addresses a specific part of Gjerdevik’s practice through works never previously shown: a 265 x 739 cm painting from 2008 and a suite comprising thirteen works on paper which were the last works Nils Erik Gjerdevik produced. Initially, the works were not created to appear in the same exhibition. Nevertheless, the consistent presence of abstract notations in black constitutes a common thread from the painting to the works on paper. Or perhaps conversely, the common thread is traced from the works on paper into the painting? If we look at the enormous main work in the exhibition, it is equally difficult to decide what constitutes the foreground and background in the painting. The black grid-like pattern competes in intensity with the turquoise plane of colour and it is difficult to determine which layer was applied first. In this way, the painting eludes the precept of the classic painting principle stipulating that the background come first. The flatness and sheer size of the work substitute the experience of looking at a painting with looking at a fragment of an unending but personal universe.

     

    Like asteroid belts floating in nothingness, the many abstract formations in the overall grid structure could well function as illustrations of a cosmic duality between order and chaos. A similar analogy was formulated by Barnett Newman already in 1945:

     

    ‘Today’s painters could be said to work with chaos not merely in the sense that they handle the chaos emerging in an empty picture plane, but also in the sense that they manage a chaos of shapes. In their attempt at going beyond the visible and known world, they work with shapes that are unknown even to themselves.’ (Barnett Newman, Barnett Newman Tekster 1945-49, page 11)

  • Installation views
  • (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
    (View more details about this item in a popup).
  • Works
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untiled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untiled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2016 Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2016
      Acrylic, ink & pen on paper. Framed in maple wood, with splines in mahogany and Tru Vue Museum acrylic.
    • Nils Erik Gjerdevik Untitled, 2008 Oil on canvas
      Nils Erik Gjerdevik
      Untitled, 2008
      Oil on canvas
  • Artist Biography
  • NILS ERIK GJERDEVIK 1962 - 2016, born in Oslo, NO Lived and worked in Copenhagen, DK The artistic practise of...

    NILS ERIK GJERDEVIK

    1962 - 2016, born in Oslo, NO
    Lived and worked in Copenhagen, DK

     

    The artistic practise of the Danish/Norwegian artist Nils Erik Gjerdevik consisted of painting and ceramic sculptures, as well as individual works on paper. Gjerdevik is known for his non-figurative paintings that challenge the set rules and conventions of painting as a genre. He always confronted our idea of how a painting should be presented through his use of peculiar formats, alternative colours and composition rarely built around the classical notion of harmony. His paintings tend toward a more double-edged expression where seemingly divergent ideas and movement meet and become one and the same image. This practice applies to his drawings and his ceramic sculpture work as well. 

     

    Gjerdevik exhibited at art institutions including: Hospicio Cabañas, Instituto Cultural Cabañas – ICC, Guadalajara, Mexico; Kunstmuseum Brandts, Denmark; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, USA; National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen. His works are found in public museum collections, including: PAMM – Pérez Art Museum Miami, USA; National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway; Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden; the National Museum, Norway, and Kiel Kunstverein, Germany. Gjerdevik executed numerous public commissions and he was honoured with awards and distinctions for his exceptional contribution to the national and international art scene.

     

    Download artist's CV

Back to exhibitions

CONTACT

+45 3254 4562
gallery@nilsstaerk.dk

Inquire

GLENTEVEJ 49
Copenhagen

Tuesday — Friday: 11 am — 5 pm

Saturday: 11 am — 3 pm

HOLBERGSGADE 19
COPENHAGEN

Tuesday — Friday: 12 pm — 5 pm

Saturday: 11 am — 3 pm

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 NILS STÆRK

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.