Kvium’s trademark humour mingles with menacing undertones of danger in his latest renditions of nature, people, faith and gender. Created especially for the Nivaagaard Collection, the new exhibition constitutes a total, immersive installation that presents all-new works and revisits a previous installation, all set in a poignant and disturbing WETLAND. Michael Kvium pulls no punches when he observes and paints the world. There is no flattery, no retouching here. And he firmly maintains that reality is far worse than any image. Perhaps his pictures are not as caricatured as one might think?
In WETLAND, he invites us to enter a simultaneously touching and disturbing world that engages closely with major issues of our time. Rich in sensory stimulation, the exhibition addresses people, nature, faith, reality and gender. In WETLAND, the welcome return of an installation last shown in Norway in 1998 joins all-new sculptures and paintings done on canvases small and large – even directly on the museum’s walls. A technically phenomenal painter, Michael Kvium is also a finely tuned seismograph, picking up the signs of the times and observing human folly. He continues to surprise and shock, all while new observations of nature, menacing undertones of danger and a sense of humour both crude and affectionate evoke emotional responses in those who view his pictures.
For WETLAND, Kvium has nurtured his creative urge by gazing upon wet land, encroaching bodies of water at our coastlines and mountains of waste. Upon everyday people closing their eyes to all threats. Unattainable women and lonely lads. Flowing tears and scattered flights of birds. All as responses to our current times.Taking the form of an immersive installation created especially for the Nivaagaard Collection, the exhibition is set in the original part of the museum building, in founder Johannes Hage’s small temple to art. Kvium has closely studied the museum’s collection of Renaissance and Baroque art, not least the religious scenes, as well as the Danish Golden Age landscapes which constitute a historical precursor and sounding board for his WETLAND. The Nivaagaard Collection always likes to bring nature inside. With this exhibition, the museum welcomes nature in a Kviumesque world as the artist sees it in the year 2024.
The exhibition is open from the 5th of October 2024 until the 16th of February 2025
