Christer Glein
It is with pleasure that Galleri Brandstrup presents our second solo exhibition with Christer Glein, “Rommet ved siden av". The exhibition consists of 15 unique works where the artist continues to develop his ongoing project that seeks to explore the possibilities of painting, both with experimental use of color, technique and challenges of different genres.
“Space” is a central concept in the exhibition. In his paintings, Glein works with a new type of perspective, where reversion creates an unclear and puzzling space within the canvas. His technique makes it difficult to determine how the shapes and geometric figures relate to each other, where they start and end. In addition, Glein focuses on the sensory experience of the gallery space as installation, here the walls function as an extension of the paintings and connects them with each other. Glein draws attention on the psychological space, in a fascination with the metaphysical in artistic productions.
In recent years, Glein has drawn inspiration from the masters of modernism such as Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and Willem de Kooning. The paintings and sculptures in "Rommet ved siden av" are characterized by a cubist style, where figurative elements who merges into geometric shapes. Glein works to abolish the contrasts in painting, between figuration and non-figuration, but also in his use of color. His coloring technique plays a central role in the exhibition "Rommet ved siden av" where no color is simple but applied in small pointillist brushstrokes, in layers upon layers between monochrome surfaces.
The different colors Glein uses also separates the geometric shapes on the surfaces of the canvas in a seamless way, creating an organic and natural expression. In the green room, we can glimpse the landscape in the series “Naturen i ham", which goes back to Henri Rousseau's flat painted jungles and 1960’s color aesthetics. In the blue room, the work “Treet i hagen” seems to be lit up by the moon from afar.
Art theorist Rosalind Krauss wrote in the essay "Grid” (1969) about how the modernists' use of straight lines became the manifesto of modern art, and separated it from pervious art forms. Glein largely relies on the grid in the works in “Rommet ved siden av”, as seen in the flatness of the geometric shapes of the canvases. The other relevant feature of the grid is the abolishment of one specific narrative, which one can recognise in Glein´s art, and the viewer is free to create his or her own story throughout the exhibition.
Some of the works in the exhibition are characterized by a light colored pattern, which is coated over the painted surface. For this series, Glein was inspired by André Bjerke´s novel “Skjult mønster”, known as the author's fourth and final book on psychoanalysis. The psychological space is especially important for Glein, and in “Rommet ved siden av” he wants to call attention to both artistic production and the mental space where creativity arises