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
Michael Kvium
Pale Male Tales , January 18 - March 7, 2020

Michael Kvium: Pale Male Tales

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

  • Michael Kvium
    Pale Male Tales 

    January 18 – March 7, 2020
    Glentevej 49, Copenhagen

    Michael Kvium opens the first solo exhibition at NILS STÆRK with a pitiless portrayal of the folly of man, covering every nook and cranny of life. The stage is set and the curtain raised for a tragicomic rendition of the present-day white male and the political challenges facing contemporary life.

     

    A persistently powerful expression has characterised the artist’s oeuvre from his first performance and video experiments in the 1980s until the present where he unceasingly and critically questions the rise and fall of Western civilisation. The exhibition Pale Male Tales addresses current political issues, confronting us with various portrayals of the white, pale male through two large-scale and a series of seven medium-sized paintings. The figure seven recurs throughout the exhibition – seven stripes form the background in each of the seven works, seven portrayals of the white male type, seven aspects of the mind. Placed next to the paintings lies the bronze sculpture Socialkreds (Social Circle) at the centre of the gallery space as a stage open to viewers. 

    Read more

    Since Kvium graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the mid-eighties, his distinctive character sketches have left indelible marks on art history and in viewers’ minds. The narrative paintings are set on a stage between curtain rise and curtain fall, like the progression of life from birth to death. The works evoke a paradoxical mood between exuberance and disgust, coming to rest in an expression between realism and abstraction virtually impossible to shake off. This insisting obtrusion into our visual memory is Kvium’s hallmark. The Pale Male Tales portrayals stick in the minds of viewers, providing a context for an, at times, unpleasant recollection of our own behaviour. 

     

    Michael Kvium’s (b.1955) works have been shown at a number of solo and group exhibitions at art institutions at home and abroad, most recently at the Gropius Bau Berlin, Kunsthal Rotterdam, and formerly at the Arken Museum of Modern Art, ARoS Art Museum, Kunsthalle Göppingen, the Red Brick Museum Beijing, the Today Art Museum, Beijing, and Schenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum to mention but a few.

  • 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).
  • Works
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 Oil On Canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      Oil On Canvas
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 Oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      Oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Pale Male Tale, 2019 Oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Pale Male Tale, 2019
      Oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Enlightening brothers, 2019 Oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Enlightening brothers, 2019
      Oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium A Darker Matter, 2019 Oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      A Darker Matter, 2019
      Oil on canvas
    • Michael Kvium Socialkreds, 2019 Bronze
      Michael Kvium
      Socialkreds, 2019
      Bronze
    • Michael Kvium Short Cut, 2019 Oil on canvas
      Michael Kvium
      Short Cut, 2019
      Oil on canvas
  • Artist Biography
  • Michael Kvium Born in Horsens, DK, 1955 Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK Michael Kvium portrays the follies of humankind....
    Photo: Anders Sune Berg

    Michael Kvium

    Born in Horsens, DK, 1955
    Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK

     

    Michael Kvium portrays the follies of humankind. For almost half a century, his artistic exploration of the suppressed aspects of humanity, has led him across a wide array of artistic mediums. Creating images resonant with theatrical qualities, rooted in his early engagement with performance art in the 80s. Kvium’s paintings are like scenes of a play engaging in grandiose or gloomy emotions, while posing critical questions about morality, idiocies, and the rise and fall of Western civilization. The works are an invitation to the viewer, to engage in reflective introspection, to share the stage and ponder. 

     

    In 2017 Kvium presented his largest exhibition to date, Circus Europa, a giant total installation first presented at ARKEN (DK) and later traveled to Kunsthal Rotterdam. The show fused painting, sculpture, film and installation in a kaleidoscopic vision exploring the state of the world. Kvium’s work has also been the center of various solo exhibitions including SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; ARoS – Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus; Kunsten – Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg; Horsens Art Museum, Horsens; The Today Art Museum, Beijing; Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen; and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.

     

    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.