Galerie Mikael Andersen is pleased to welcome you to the opening of two exhibitions: BLUEBERRY BESTIARY by Jagoda Bednarsky and DREAMLINER by Henri Haake Friday 21 April 2023.

BLUEBERRY BESTIARY

JAGODA BEDNARSKY

Bestiary is a literary genre, popularized in medieval times. It is a collection of descriptions of both real and mythological animals, in which the animals’ appearance and behavior are described. A hedgehog is for example described as climbing into bushes full of fruit or grapes, shaking the branches so the fruit falls down. The hedgehog will then use its spikes to collect the fruit on the ground and take it home.

Such descriptions are most likely not the result of actual observations, but rather an imaginative way of connecting dots. Jagoda Bednarsky’s exhibition BLUEBERRY BESTIARY might also lead its spectators to connect dots in a fanciful way.

Bednarsky’s paintings often have douche and pastel-colored backgrounds. In front of these float abstract figures together with recognizable items. Here is popcorn, a breast, drips, and gloved cartoon hands. In one painting the face of a rooster merges with a flower, but in the other works the figures seem to float around on their own. Some of the depicted items have meaning within a pictural tradition. The hands might be cartoonish, but in the gestures, they preform we recognize meaning. The breast seen in one painting can symbolize femininity, motherhood or be understood as a sexual laden symbol, when seen in an art historical context. Other items in the paintings, such as popcorn, have less historical meaning within art, but might reference pop art or simply hot air.

In the exhibition is also included a series of book paintings. The paintings take on the shape of large books, which though can only be read from the outside. The titles do remind you of book titles, but only vaguely. One is called Volume II but offers no explanation of what series it is part of. On some of the books the artist’s name is written and doubles as both a signature and name of a fictional writer. The artist is also present in the exhibition title, as Jagoda is Polish for blueberry. Image and name double and interchange.

To form a kind of narrative out of these images and their play on meaning is an endeavor most beholders will unconsciously take on. This will prove itself to be difficult, at least if one is not ready to explore one’s personal way of connecting dots.

Jagoda Bednarsky (b. 1988, Zlotoryja, Poland) is educated from Kunsthochschule Kassel and HfBK Städelschule in Frankfurt. She today lives and works in Berlin. Her work was included in the large survey exhibition JETZT! Neue Malerei in Deutschland shown at various German museums such as Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Kunstmuseum Bonn, and Museum Wiesbaden. Her work is included in collections such as Deutsche Bundesbank, European Central Bank and The National Museum in Gdánsk, Poland.

DREAMLINER

HENRI HAAKE

In Henri Haake’s exhibition DREAMLINER the attention of the viewer first goes to the large blue diptych Kosmos and the intense blue color that dominates the work.

Legs of several persons flow around in the large work at different distances. The blue is both dense and transparent. The color creates a room of great depth as well as fills it out and almost overflows from the canvas into the actual room.

In another work Honey Lotion the viewer’s gaze is cut off by a shower curtain, which blocks almost the entire canvas. The paint that poses as a plastic shower curtain is see-through and allows us to see two figures inside the shower. As in Kosmos the sense of space in the work is built through a dynamic relationship between color, different painterly technics, and the figures. The works have their own kind of pictorial depth, but also come towards the viewer.

Haake’s motives are in general collected from the everyday and would in real life not necessarily present themselves as memorable or noticeable. In Haake’s paintings the perspective is though often very different from our normal human experience. It seems like the odd perspective, that Haake offers the viewer, imbues the mundane scene with both presence and a poetic charm.

Henri Haake (b. 1989 Lübeck, Germany) studied at the Universität der Künste Berlin and lives and work in Berlin. He recently showed the solo exhibition Honey Lotion at Office Impart, Berlin. He has participated in exhibitions at Kunstverein Arnsberg, Nicole Gnesa, Munich and Rundgænger, Frankfurt.

For more information on the exhibition and for press photographs please contact the gallery on tel. 33 33 05 12 or email: cph@mikaelandersen.com. The exhibitions end 3 June 2023. Daily opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-18, Saturday 11-15.