Galleri Tom Christoffersen

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Claus Carstensen, Untitled. 2011, acrylic and spray paint on photocopy, 91x121 cm

Claus Carstensen exhibits large format drawings at Gallery Tom Christoffersen. The exhibition consists of images that can be seen as a defunctioning of the classic drawing. With other mediums such as spray, collage, photocopy, technical failure lithography etc. these images manifests in dystopian range of motifs. Using a low budget, low-fi, mutilated and raw expression the body of work is dealing with a negation of the historical, political and aesthetic representation.

Defacing is a key concept for the images and has been part of Claus Carstensen's practice from since the late 1980s. All the way back to the Christian ikonoklasts defacing (modification) has been a useful strategy in visual art. Through Modernism Rauschenberg's Erased De Kooning, where the work is an erased drawing, and in Denmark the Modifications by Asger Jorn are examples of defacing. When Claus Carstensen is using this approach it often happens in a political context and his works play on the defacing that takes place out in the real world – in the revolutionary regimes when all traces must be deleted or in a more Danish context as when election posters are mutilated. In both cases, and in his own image's expression, it is about the vacuum ikonoklasmen, defacing, creates in the encounter with reality and representation. The otherness that the works here is assigned, creates a possible space for enunciation - an opening for a new discourse.

In relation to the exhibition a catalog is published in the Artist Book tradition. D.R.A.W.I.N.G.S., fuck ups and defaced posters is a picture book without text - clean, clear visual communication. The catalog is supported by the Danish Arts Council.

Claus Carstensen (b.1957) is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen 1977-1983 and was Professor there from 1993-2002. Solo exhibitions 2011: Silent Room, Silver Room, Kling & Bang Gallerí, Reykjavik, Stilled Life – an Early Spring, Day Long Walk to My Copenhagen Housings 1977–2011, www.torpedo18.dk, Museum Sønderjylland – Sønderborg Slot, Sønderborg. Group exhibitions 2011: Enter, Munch Gallery, New York, Edition Dansk, Munch Gallery, New York, Sjælens spejl – naturfølelsen i dansk kunst, Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Holstebro. Upcoming exhibitions: Klaksvikaffærer, Nodens Hus og Steinprent, Tórshavn, 3rd Party, Beaver Projects, København 12.8 – 27.8 2011. Upcoming publications: Feltarbejde – essays, korrespondancer og samtaler, Forlaget Vandkunsten, Klaksvikaffærer, Nordens Hus, Red. Claus Carstensen og Søren Houmann: Sven Dalsgaard – Breve fra Randers Centralsygehus, Randers Kunstmuseum. Upcoming commissions: Syddansk Universitet, Odense, Denmark.

selected works

Biography

Press Release in Danish (PDF)

Duration: 19.08. - 17.09.2011

Opening: Friday 19.08.2011, 5-7 PM

CUBE

Jeffrey Silverthorne

Please click here for more information on the CUBE exhibition