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Sverre Bjertnaes 'Silent Conditions'

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Date: 
Friday, 26 May 2017 to Saturday, 1 July 2017
Opening: 
Thursday, 25 May 2017 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Beers London presents ‘Silent Conditions’, the first-ever UK exhibition from the much-celebrated Norwegian artist Sverre Bjertnæs. In recent years, Bjertnæs has become one of the country's most renowned painters: the result of high profile exhibitions in the US; collaborations with Norway's enfant terible of the artworld, Bjarne Melgaard; and sell-out, critically regarded installations of his work at The Armory New York in both 2017 and 2016.  

For Beers, Bjertnæs continues his overarching oeuvre, with each exhibition as kinds of gesamtkunstwerks – artworks that make use of multiple art forms in order to deliver their message. Bjertnæs is increasingly interested in the narratives that form between his shows, claiming he has "grown more and more interested in the narrative that consists between different pieces in a show".Silent Conditions will continue this notion by transforming Beers London into aWunderkammer-like collection of works in wildly differing forms - many the result of collaborations between other artists and himself, such as a work with the aforementioned Melgaard.

Another such collabortation is the film ‘Memories of Us’, a collaboration with Norwegian dramatic writer Arne Lygre. The film typifies the kind of collaborative discourse that increasingly typifies Bjertnæs' practice; the film is a documentation of a performance by Lyre, which itself was based off ofBjertnæs sculpture in a previous show at Galleri Bandstrup, Oslo, in 2016. Other elements include a wooden Chaise Longue, a carpet made by Bjertnæs, and ceramics made especially for the show by him and his mother. However, we also see a painter who is continuously establishing his prowess and redefining his entire practice. There is an affinity to more traditional forms of image making, including a collaboration with Belgian artist Christer Glein wherein both artists worked interchangeably upon the same canvas. This sense of relinquishing a degree of artistic ownership marks a distinct change in Sverre’s approach to artmaking, and here it is a defining characteristic of the exhibition. 

Other paintings in the show include ‘Sculpture by the Sea I’ and ‘Baptism’. These continue Bjertnæs’ explorations into figurative abstraction, wherein organic figures, often somewhat creature-like in their appearance, reside in landscapes littered with geometric shapes and forms. There is a tendency toward emotional, naturalistic responses to self and nature - recalling the vivid literary landscapes of another famous Norwegian, playright Henrik Ibsen, whose Romantic, vaguely religious, and almost tortured visions seem to come to life throughout each of Bjertnæs' works. But for Bjertnæs, the paintings grow organically, throughout the image-making process, sometimes stemming from loose thoughts arriving from another artwork or personal experience. "I’ve started to believe in a more emotional and intuitive approach to art," he says, "for me, it’s the only way [we] can truly connect to any artwork."

Artist ( Description ): 

Sverre Bjertnæs (1976, Trondheim) was educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, for then to further develop his studies at AKI Academy of Fine Art in Enschede in Holland. During the most recent years, he has been rising as a star in Norway’s contemporary art scene, with a strong artistic identity. He made his mark as a young figurative painter and drawer after attending the Norwegian “Nerderum School” as a teenager. Bjertnæs’ paintings frequently display portraits, where a playful tone meets the images complex relationships. These perspectives have in the latest years formed a unique language. Each work is a new discovery equipped with its own codes and instruments, an exciting artistic style that both stays true to classical figuration, as well as experimenting with conceptualism. His works, Bjertnæs states, are focused on the community between the works and the viewer as an aesthetic experience. This transition between styles have had a groundbreaking effect on Bjertnæs’ oeuvre, where the focus is the exploration in itself, both of the arts own possibilities and of himself. 

His first solo exhibition was at the Norwegian gallery Anarchist Fraction runned by Bjarne Melgaard in 2000, a natural starting point as the two artists has developed close affiliation, both personally and creatively. Their relationship led to Bjertnæs first international solo exhibition, which was held at White Columns Gallery in New York in 2012. The exhibition was curated by Melgaard, and was called “A projective identification”, where the gallery walls was coved in bold colors and patterns, with portraits of carefully chosen depiction, of a variety of subjects, from Jesus Christ to the artist’s wife. This way of having his exhibitions curated has become one of Bjertnæs’ trademarks, where the rooms were filled up to the edge with paintings, drawings, films, and wooden – and bronze sculptures. The aesthetic experience is in focus, but at the same time one can recognize what Melgaard points out, as he commented on the effect of his curating as “of trying to express emotions that become colder and colder the more you try to express them.” The exhibition was named one of the 10 best exhibitions in New York in 2012, by the New York Times. The two artists also sheared a booth at the Armory Show the same year, which was an ironic tribute to the art dealer extraordinaire Mary Boone, who is represented by high-end women’s power suits and crude drawings. The booth was intended as a whole installation work, a conceptual piece that was named one of the best boots at the Armory Show, also by New York Times. In January 2014, Bjertnæs showed in a much celebrated solo exhibition at the Oslo based museum Stenersen Museet. Bjertnæs has been represented by Galleri Brandstrup since 2014 and with BEERS starting early 2016.

Telephone: 
+44(0)207 502 9078
Venue ( Address ): 

BEERS London 

1 Baldwin Street
London, United Kingdom
EC1V 9NU

BEERS London , London

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