Galerie Mikael Andersen would like to welcome you to the opening of the exhibition Sixty with new paintings by British artist Tom Anholt, Friday the 3rd February 2017, 5-7 pm.

“I used to fear art history, now in the studio I feel as if I have two thousand years, maybe five thousand years to draw on”, says Tom Anholt of his new exhibition Sixty. His new painting series of oil on linen are laden with references to centuries of art history, from Hellenic antiquity and Persian miniature painting to European Romanticism.  Tom Anholt adapts the abundance of art historical references by incorporating elements of collage in his paintings. By adding and recycling fragments from his canvases and old works he turns the pictorial iconography away from the specific given meaning and towards an indexical that alludes loosely towards several historical sources. 

“The use of narrative is very closely linked to process in Anholt’s paintings”, British art historian Mark Gisbourne writes about Tom Anholt and his practice. “His paintings are post-narratological evocations rather than obvious acts of linear storytelling, figures and objects appear but are largely subsumed within a greater import of the painting as the determining process and final realisation. Yet at the same time there are numerous visual references and derived iconographical motifs from historical sources.”

Tom Anholt (b. 1987) currently lives and works in Berlin. He holds a BA in fine arts from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. Sixty is his third solo show at Galerie Mikael Andersen. A catalogue will be released in connection with the exhibition. The book is titled Sixty and is designed by Claus Due and features Mark Gisbourne’s essay “Traces of Mnemosyne”.

Photo credits: Jan Søndergaard