Olav Christopher Jenssen

New works by Olav Christopher Jenssen
June 13th – September 6th 2009

Brandts Torv 1
DK-5000 Odense C

www.brandts.dk

Kunsthallen Brandts presents a solo-exhibition with the latest works of highly internationally acclaimed Norwegian artist Olav Christopher Jenssen (b. 1954). The exhibition will be both extensive and differentiated with approximate 40 paintings including also drawings and sculptures. Olav Christopher Jenssen has made his? name with an original rethinking of abstract painting. Stylistic he has moved from a renewed vigilance on abstract expressionism in the 80s to a more distinct expression in today’s paintings. This development has parallels to the developments in painting throughout in the last 30 years he has been active as an artist. Therefore Olav Christopher Jenssen has contributed to tendencies as well as created new pictorial languages in contemporary art.

Self-generating paintings?
During the last ten years the artist has simplified his language and concentrated on the substantial entities of painting: form and colour – and relied on the ability of form and colour to create spacial and painterly atmospheres. Reason for this is to be found in his fascination for the organic and amorphous. His starting point remains his consciousness and sensation of the momentary and temporary. Or formulated by the the artist himself: “There is a long wait connected to this attitude – the wait for the unique moment that allows things to progress and expand … there is a patience in the anxiety, which does not demand anything else from me than my existence and da-sein.”

Nordic tradition and aesthetic
Olav Christopher Jenssen belongs to a generation of Nordic artists who with innovative approaches has formulated a specific Nordic aesthetic, sensibility, and feeling in a contemporary art context. The form is abstract, colours are scattered out and linking light and darkness and the works embody tranquillity and poetry, which often relates to a Nordic tradition.

Opening
The exhibition opens Friday June 12th 2009 at 5pm. Professor from Art and Cultural Science at University of Copenhagen Anne Ring Petersen will speek at the opening. The exhibition is open to public from June 13th til September 6th 2009.

In connection with the exhibition Verlag Walther König publishes a catalogue with lay out by Olav Christopher Jenssen.

Collaborators
The exhibition is made possible in collaboration with KIASMA in Helsinki and Sørlandets Kunsmuseum in Kristiansand.

Further information
Please contact curator Anna Krogh +452753 7015 or press manager Trine Søndergaard +456520 7092
Download press pictures at www.brandts.dk