Slut dato: 2023-04-22

Steen Larsen

Crossroads

18.03 – 22.04

Steen Larsen made his debut in 1992 in, at that time, very small Galleri NB.

With artistic education at Dartington College of Arts and Den Frie Kunstskole back in the 80s, he decided to work with the realistic art direction.

Over the years, Steen Larsen has exhibited in the USA, among others Miami and New York. In addition, a number of European cities such as Oslo, Salzburg, Vilnius and Copenhagen.

YouTube: Steen Larsen - Crossroads

Steen Larsen's latest paintings approach the hyper realistic. Although he does not want to use sprays and various varnishes, the richness of detail and the factual are predominant.
But what makes Steen Larsen's painting so fascinating is his ability to add a special and very personal atmosphere to the work. In the selection and de-selection of realistic subjects in the painting, in conjunction with the depth of the visual expression, there is a compositional balance which supports what he really wants to promote with his painting: an interpretation of a certain mood in a place-specific area at a precise time of day .
In the paintings, viewers get the artist's interpretation of something recognizable and, for many people, a familiar motif - even if this may require a longer journey around America to find.

Direct photolink to the artworks.

PDF Catalog

Slut dato: 2023-03-11

Vilmantas - Endless Journey

04.02 - 11.03

Vilmantas tells his story behind the theme: Link to YouTube video 

Photolink to the artworks

Endless Journey
- a new theme from Vilmantas Marcinkevicius

Vilmantas will never forget February 2022. Together with his family, he was on a one-week holiday in Zanzibar for the first time after Covid-19.
The freedom to be able to gather again and travel out into the world excited Vilmantas. And as always, he was also curious and interested in what the local opportunities could offer. And of course he found Zanzibar to be a breathtaking island with sand, beach, hotels and an endless ocean. 

But one day he sat in the bow of a small boat and looked out over the Indian Ocean. In the situation, Vilmantas was completely filled with a wonderful experience of the dynamics and interaction between the light, the sea, the sky and infinity.
A deep and intense experience, where the changes and changes of color beyond the sea and on the horizon set themselves as strong emotional imprints in his memory. So violent that at home in the studio he had to find a new artistic expression for his new thoughts about this experience of the infinity between sky and sea.

Back home

The normally figurative artist therefore went to the studio and sat down to put his impressions on canvas. In the beginning, it became three paintings, the expression of which overwhelmed the very few who were allowed a first look at the paintings. Among others, I was allowed to experience them myself - first in photos and then in reality.
I actually couldn't believe my eyes. Here I was faced with some works of art that filled me with just as much astonishment, palpitations and joy as when I had visited the Munch Museum in Oslo two weeks earlier. Without any comparison between the artists Edward Munch and Vilmantas Marcinkevicius, but still with a sincere joy at being allowed to face art, which set my endorphins in motion to such an extent.
Soon after, the gallery, with Vilmantas among others, participated in the art fair Art Vilnius 2022.

We chose to take two of the paintings to the art fair as a test of the audience's reactions to the new paintings. And what reactions!
The paintings were immediately sold to dedicated art collectors and at the same time the paintings created a lot of wonder and admiration around Vilmantas' new theme.

Endless Journey
An exhibition must of course have a title. The theme around the endless journey towards the horizon, the dreams or the goals is gathered in the title of the exhibition: Endless Journey, which exclusively presents the paintings and ceramic works which are the result of several months of animated effort by Vilmantas.

Seen in the context of previous exhibitions, we stand with something unique. All the works have the same composition, but the individual works have very different expressions in color and dynamics. As a whole, you feel the coherence of the title and at the same time you sense a harmonious, dynamic and beautiful intensity in each individual work of art.

The artist in the bow

For example, it is amazing how the deep and almost greasy ultramarine blue color creates a base for a touch of yellow-orange strokes. Or something similar, but this time with a red sky over a yellow sea in motion. Each time with the artist sitting in the bow of the boat, as the symbol of the difference between stability and movement. The bow of the boat appears almost like an exhibition bench for the artist and all the rest of us who want to be amazed by the breathtaking view.

Together with Vilmantas, these works give us an opportunity to dream and think big thoughts. Can we reach the horizon, or is the goal too far into infinity for us to reach?

As another explorer, we do not know what awaits us. But together with Vilmantas artworks, we can go on an endless, inspiring and magical journey of discovery for life.

Thorkild NB Nielsen

Slut dato: 2023-01-21

Square Beads

06.01 - 21.01

Square Beads – an impossible title, unless in this case we are thinking of paintings, collages and hand-coloured etchings. Not only are these selected artworks square, but so is the hanging, as the artworks are presented in distinctive blocks.

In this context, the word pearls refers to artistic pearls, which the artists Nana RH Bastrup, Marius Martinussen and Vilmantas are behind.

All photos have individual links to the artworks:

Nana RH Bastrup

Exhibition view

Nana RH Bastrup, Untitled, 34 x 46 cm with frame, 2013 

Nana Rosenørn Holland Bastrup (b.1987). The series (Vienna Color Affairs) was created in 2013, when Nana RH Bastrup was on exchange at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Here she worked on a series of collages/drawings where she explored the fields of tension and dynamics between the sexes.

Marius Martinussen

Exhibition view

CROSSHATCHED, 100 x 120 cm, 2022

Marius Martinussen (b. 1978). The series CROSSHATCHED was created with inspiration from the American artist Jasper John (b. 1930), who in the 1960s created a series with the title CROSSHATCHED.
In these paintings, Marius Martinussen has tightened up Jasper John's abstract expression and thus he has achieved an independent artistic expression.

Vilmantas Marcinkevicius

Exhibition view

Vilmantas, The woman who. Created 2009 at Atelje Larsen in Helsingborg

Vilmantas Marcinkevicius (1969). In 2009, Vilmantas produced four impressive four-colour aquatints at the leading intaglio printing house Atelier Larsen in Helsingborg. At the same time, he let 10 of each etching hand color. They immediately have the same figuration as the aquatints, but appear with very different overpaintings and expressions.