Michael Kvium
Galleri Brandstrup is delighted to announce the exhibition opening for up-coming show "Point of No Return", a solo exhibition by Michael Kvium (b. 1955). The exhibition will open on Thursday, 28 February from 6 - 8 pm, and close on 23 March 2019.
With expressions both tragicomic and grotesque, a part of the exhibition “Point of No Return” is a series of paintings of uncompromising portraits of foolish mankind and our existential conditions of life. Kvium addresses existential themes of being human through his characteristic figurative imagery. His familiar androgynous and deformed figures represent a view of humanity that concerns us all irrespective of sex, age and social capacity. He confronts the spectator, often by creating a sense of mirroring, with uncompromising portrayals of aspects of life that we rather hide, than expose to observation. Wrapped in stereotypes, the people portrayed in Kvium´s portraits further challenge the viewer with a paradoxical feeling of horror and fascination of the hideous and of nothingness. The result is a fear of emptiness, and a lack of meaning or being, which creates the foundation of a sublime redemption when experiencing his work.
In the painting “Gray Day View II” Kvium transfers his depiction of human traits of stretched limps and overdone features to nature. The way he portrays the trees are similar to his human portraits; though not alone, they are isolated and lonely. In similar tradition to the Romantic Area, “Gray Day View II” reflects human feelings onto portrayals of nature; vast and powerful, inspiring, terror and awe.
Amongst portraits of humans and nature, are a series of unidentifiable intestines, gleefully and distortedly displayed on bright coloured canvases. This series summarizes and binds the further works of the exhibition and reminds us of Kvium´s dystopian outlook on the mind and future of the human race. That we have now reached a “Point of No Return” and what is left is complete helplessness masked by a cheerful ignorance. The title of the exhibition “Point of No Return” refers to an indescribable moment, when we are close to infinity. A moment between what was, and what is to come which will always be a “point of no return”, and there is no way to go back, but are forced to float on into an eternal fog in time and space. As time is infinite, we will not be able to grasp this moment and give it the extent it warrants.
Michael Kvium lives and works in Copenhagen (DK). He had his breakthrough immediately after his education at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Kvium works with a wide assortment of media: sculpture, theater, performance, audiovisual and painting.
Kvium’s works are part of permanent collections such as Espoo Museum of Modern Art (FIN), Red Brick Contemporary Art Museum, Bejing (CN), Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum (CN), ARoS Aarhus (DK), The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copehagen (DK), Cabinet Des Estampes, Geneve (CH), Gothenburg Art Gallery (SE), Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum (NO), KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg (DK), Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (NZ) and several others. In 2018 Kvium exhibited solo shows at Tang Gallery in Hong Kong and the Kunsthal Rotterdam (NL). In 2017 ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art (DK), showed a solo exhibition and in 2016 a solo show at the Kunsthalle Göppingen (DE). Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg (SE) exhibited a solo exhibition in 2015.
