Blackboard Sunset, a new solo exhibition by Danish artist Eske Kath (*1975) is a continuation of his series of works painted on blackboards. In this series, Kath explores how our human structures are always bound to the basic laws of nature.

The blackboard, usually associated with temporary, scientific information, is through the application of acrylic paint converted into a permanent work of art. Hereby, the rules of the blackboard as a defined medium are circumvented.

In Kath’s works houses are overgrown by the jungle and overflowed by the seas. It seems like we are invited into a post-apocalyptic scenario. However, the chaos in Kath’s works never appears threatening but peaceful and graphic. Nature seems to take over humanity in an almost romantic manner. The title of the show, Blackboard Sunset, refers to a playful contradiction between the ‘cold’ scientific and rational nature of the blackboard and the emotional and romantic experience of a sunset. With the blackboard as canvas, Kath paints the image of a setting sun transcended by chalk lines in geometrical figures and circles referring to physical phenomena. The viewer is reminded that even the most emotional experience is based on laws of nature.

With his exhibition Man Made, the young British artist TOM ANHOLT (*1987) is also exploring painting as a medium. The environments in Anholt’s works are awkward and irregular, as if pieced together by hand. According to the artist, the character of the painting comes from its eccentricities and mistakes, revealing the personality of the maker.   

Anholt explores the idea that a painter can conjure up a self-contained world, which exists only within the canvas. Paintings of lucid, dream-like environments invite the viewer to take a journey through streets and tunnels, up stairs and into dead ends. Common to the strong figurative motifs are situations where the protagonist has been removed.

Consequently, the viewer is left alone to observe the rich detail of the environments and thereby to create a personal narrative perhaps even by imagining inhabiting the worlds himself. As such, Anholt is not interested in portraying reality but rather to pass on a diffused feeling of space and memory. A wide range of patterns cover his paintings and brash colours make his work vivid and impulsive, seducing the viewer to enter the presented worlds and to let himself be taken to unexpected places.