Just a few years ago, there was a faint rustling that could be heard outside the studio in Hellerup; the noise was coming from behind the nice new fence made of bark-covered spruce stems. As autumn started to fade and winter was closing in, there appeared, by degrees, a respectably-sized horde of teeth-chattering and blue-nosed mandrills standing outside the door of my workshop.

Out of the kindness of my heart, I let these now chilled and benumbed souls into the warmth.

After a few casual conversations about life on the reservation, I simply had to get back to my work and quickly forgot about the slight disturbance. As it moved toward the evening hours, though, I started to think again about the baboons that appeared, after all, to have left my workshop so amicably.

But by no means had they done so! The mandrills had managed to hop their way into the half-finished pictures that were positioned here and there in the studio and now they sat, right there, with their staring and critical gazes – keeping an eye on all my movements. Since then, I’ve had to dress myself in a somewhat uncomfortable diving suit, you see, in order to get some peace and obtain the isolation that is, of course, a necessity prerequisite when it’s time to create.

Collectors – who come here to the garden to study and capture rare and previously unknown insects – often contemplate, with woebegone looks, my ponderous pacing back and forth in front of the canvas. Every now and then, they let me polish their shoes and then they toss a coin to the monkeys and me.

Lars Nørgård (translated by Dan A. Marmorstein)

The exhibition FAIRWAY presents a series of new paintings by Lars Nørgård, paintings that alternate between abstract and figurative compositions. In the abstract paintings you can recognise Lars Nørgård’s emphasis on soundscapes and exploration into complex structures. This idea is further accentuated in his figurative painting, but in these paintings the artist elegantly builds a universe of absurd and bizarre narratives. These narratives give the work a multitude of interpretations and an appealing openness.

Lars Nørgard Graduated from The School of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen and Academy of Art College in San Francisco, USA.  He is, among others, represented at the National Gallery of Denmark, ARoS-Aarhus Art Museum, The Danish Museum of Art & Design, Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg and Horsens Art Museum.  Recently he has taken part in the exhibition The Wild 80s at Arken Museum of Modern Art in 2010, a solo exhibition Luksussyner at Kunsten Musem of Modern Art, Aalborg in 2011 and an exhibition entitled Director’s Choice at ARoS in 2013.

Photo credits: Jan Søndergaard