ALL EXHIBITIONS

Astrid Kruse Jensen & Mette Vangsgaard

Imaginary Realities

21.05 – 25.06.2005

The show presents new works by Astrid Kruse Jensen and Mette Vangsgaard, two progressive young artists from the contemporary Danish art scene. Their work gives a thorough impression of a distinct tendency in Danish contemporary art: Poetic realism.

 

Astrid Kruse Jensen and Mette Vangsgaard both use the passage between reality and imagination as starting point for their works. As reconstructed moments of of remembrance the realism of their works connects with the sphere of imagination. This binds the two artists together across the different medias of their work: The photographs by Astrid Kruse Jensen - the paintings and sculptures by Mette Vangsgaard. It is pictures of everyday life, but then again: everyday life in the form of intense, precisely chosen parts of the bigger story of life and love, which drives reality into a poetic mode. The works portrays the moment when our individual life open up and becomes a part of the world around us - the moment where we step out of ourselves and reflection begins.

 

Astrid Kruse Jensen (b.1975) presents works from her two series Imaginary Realities and Hypernatural. In Imaginary Realities the artist returns to her past and reconstructs moments from her memory. Her photographs here have a strong narrative mode with allusions to cinematic expression. Hypernatural portrays empty outdoor Icelandic swimming facilities. The darkness in the photographs softens the transition from the original natural setting to the manmade facilities. Astrid Kruse Jensen has studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

 

Mette Vangsgaard (f. 1968) takes the subtle balance of everyday life between the banal and the deeply serious as starting point in her works for the show. Her small claysculptures are physical concentrations of the course of the paintings, which depicts a familys outing in the forest as passing glimps of happiness. The artist often uses toys as model, and the breadt of view and determinism of the play of children sets the tone of melancholy and longing of the works. Mette Vangsgaard is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.