A new artist publication coming in two different versions, revolving around Værslev's new series of “sunset” paintings.
Fredrik Værslev's work navigates between different painterly traditions, and demonstrates the possibilities and relevance of the medium today. He treats his paintings as objects, often created through more or less laborious, serial, or deterministic processes where time itself, as well as various external factors, become active cocreators in the making of the work. In several series, he has left his paintings outdoors for long periods of time, allowing the weather and external wear to complete the work. Other works employ apparently clichéd techniques, motifs, or art-historical quotations (i.e., dripping and splattering). More recently, Værslev has been working with a tool used for marking painted lines on roads and sports fields.
Published in conjunction with Fredrik Værselv's exhibition “All Around Amateur” at the Bergen Kunsthall and
Le Consortium, Dijon, this publication, comes in two different versions, with each book comprising 320 one-to-one digital images scanned from eight of Værslev's new “sunset” paintings. Each canvas produces a total of eighty scanned images, which are reproduced in the book sequentially, left to right, top to bottom. The full-bleed scans in each “volume,” together, reproduce an entire wall of paintings from the exhibition. The paintings, based on photographs of sunsets taken by Værslev on his iPhone from airplane windows, evoke the work of art-historical figures such as J. M. W. Turner, Mark Rothko, and
Edvard Munch.
The catalogue also includes newly commissioned texts by
Ina Blom, Martin Clark, and Steinar Sekkingstad as well as an interview with artist Anne Pontégnie.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous touring exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, from May 26 to August 14, 2016, and at
Le Consortium, Dijon, from November 18, 2016, to February 19, 2017.
Fredrik Værslev (born 1979 in Moss, Norway, lives and works in Drøbak, Norway) studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt and at the Malmö Art Academy, Sweden. He is the director and founder of the Landings Project Space in Vestfossen, Norway. He exhibited in numerous museums and institutions worldwide.
One of the most original voices of contemporary
painting, Norwegian artist Fredrik Værslev navigates between different painterly traditions. His practice demonstrates an insistent focus on the painting process that demonstrates the possibilities and relevance of the medium today. His works stem from the meeting between architecture and painting, and take form as painted renderings of motifs from the artist's daily life. He treats his paintings as objects, often created through more or less laborious, serial, or deterministic processes where time itself, as well as various external factors, become active co-creators in the making of the piece. In several series he left his paintings outdoors for long periods of time, allowing the weather and external wear to complete them. Other works employ apparently clichéd techniques, motifs, or art historical quotations (i.e. dripping and splattering). Værslev also challenges the process of painting by freely collaborating with fellow artists or making use of untraditional painting tools, such as spray cans or equipment used to paint roads and sports arenas. Værslev's paintings often shift between abstraction and representation, as can be seen in his breakthrough series, the “terrazzo” paintings, that imitate the visuality of Italian stone floors and at the same time call upon the expressivity and spontaneity of abstract expressionism. The “Canopy” series is reminiscent of modernism and its stripe paintings, but they stem rather from the awnings at the artist's childhood home.
