ellen-k

…like hot cakes….

admin1 — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:18:47 +0000

The Paris based, Australian born artist Vee Speers sells like hot cakes… Her painterly portraits from the Birthday Party series with dramatic elements and unique color characteristics brings to mind our own childhood adventures, and acts as a reminder of our collective need to escape into our own imaginations.

These photos seem suspended in time. Speers achieves this through brilliant casting, simple backgrounds, costumes and hair-styles that cannot be easily placed in modern times, and subtle hand-tinted color effects added to the original black-and-white prints. The life-size images hover, large and luscious, on the wall — and can stop you in your tracks.

Vee Speers has created several interesting bodies of work we are proud to present; as the Immortal series from 2010 // ‘Finally, I think what makes Immortal work so well, is the direct gaze that Speers elicits from her subjects. The look is genuine — whether it is detached, disdainful, modest, defiant, arrogant, melancholy, worried, or puffed up with peacock machismo. These Immortals are all like tragic fallen angels, eyes opened with animal intelligence, looking out onto an uncertain future, not even aware of how perfectly beautiful they appear to be right now.’

The Bordello series // ‘The art of seduction fascinates me. I love the game — you can dress yourself up and act out a role, and that sets you free to create your own stories, your own mysteries. And it gives you power. I tried to capture all that when I photographed these women, none of whom are models, as such.’ (texts derived from interviews by Jim Casper at LensCulture)

All series are beautifully printed, either with the traditional cibachrome technique or Fresson prints.

You are welcome to visit PUG#6 at Paleet in Oslo to have a look at her books and some of her prints.

Opening hours from 10-6 pm Monday-Saturday.

Jack Helgesen Family Collection

admin1 — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:19:18 +0000

One of 3 museum shows featuring the carismatic Norwegian contemporary art collector Jack Helgesens extensive collection opened this weekend at Vestfossen outside Oslo. The exhibition has already received massive attention, and was rendered 6 out of 6 by art critic Lars Elton in VG – the most read newspaper in Norway. One of the artists featured in Mr Helgesens Family Collection is our one and only Mr Roger Ballen.

Also note that Haugar Vestfold Museum – opening the 16th of May and Vigeland Museum opening on the 31st of May presents 3 dimensional objects from Mr Helgesens Family Collection.

We highly recommend a visit to Vestfossen! The Art Centre is located in an old factory space from 1886 with a unique and rough character – one of the best places to see contemporary art in Norway. The exhibition space is 1800 m2 and covers four floors. The Art Centre also houses Galleri Van Bau presenting the mind-blowing show ”Whiteout violence / Censorship alliance”, based on photography from areas of war conflicts, an installation and a video by the Norwegian artist Thomas Kvam.

The Café Cellulose has an excellent lunch menu.. enjoy…

Brilliant weirdness // A Roger Ballen update

admin1 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:35:15 +0000

‘Approximately four years ago, I found an old house in Johannesburg, South Africa. This place has become the focus of my photography for the past few years since the completion of my book Boarding House in 2008. Inside this house live a motley bunch of people from various spectrums of South African society. Living along with these people are large numbers of wild birds that inhabit this space and exist alongside the inhabitants. The birds are not in cages and have the freedom to move throughout the place. Most rooms in this house are quite barren and the inhabitants have taken to drawing figures and faces on the walls. Besides the birds, the place is full of rats, mice, cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc. The Asylum is ultimately a place in which reality blurs with fantasy. Objects, drawings and spaces interact to create multiple meanings very few which we can find words for.

I have specifically chosen the word Asylum as the title to the proposed book as it has contradictory meanings. On one hand it represents a place of refuge and safety, and on the other hand a place of insanity.’

During 2012 Roger Ballen will have one man exhibitions at the following Museums:

Manchester Art Gallery, England
Marta Herford Museum, Herford, Germany
Northwest University Museum, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Novosibirsk Art Museum, Russia
Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria
Musee de l Elysee, Lausanne Switzerland
Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Rosphoto, St. Peterburg, Russia
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel

In the month of January Roger Ballen has completed two films. The first one, sponsored by the Dutch film Fund documents aspects of the Asylum using a narrative format, the second is a music video on the South African band Die Antwoord who has integrated his visual symbolism into their presentation. The New York Times documented the photo shoot and published the article ‘Johannesburgs most wanted‘. The video, ‘I Fink U Freeky’ has had over 600.000 hits in two days on YouTube.

William Ropp at Maison Européen de la Photographie in Paris.

admin1 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:20:30 +0000

The ‘Sculptor of Shadows’ William Ropp was present during the opening of his exhibition at MEP in Paris last week. There was a long line of people waiting to enter the museum, while the crème de la crème of the Parisian intellectual Left crowded around Mr Ropp and former Minister of Culture in France, Mr Jacques Lang. The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, situated in the historic heart of Paris, is a major centre for contemporary photographic art. Since February 1996 it has housed an exhibition centre, a large library, an auditorium, and a video viewing facility with a wide selection of films. It is designed to make the three fundamental photographic media (exhibition prints, the printed page, and film) easily accessible to all.

The exhibition lasts until 25th of March, and presents a selection of about twenty photographs from his 20-year career. Here, there, and everywhere, from the revealing darkness of the studio to the vast open spaces of Africa and the villages of Mexico, he teases out the threads of an obsession for man devoid of all artifice, for the dark, deformed flesh of desire and for anxious or sunny childhood. Today, after over 20 years working in black and white, William Ropp has produced colour portraits where both the pose and the technique are inspired by classical painting.

The book ‘Faces’ published by Les éditions de l’oeil comprising Ropp´s most recent color work was launched in conjunction with the exhibition at MEP, and we are proud to present a selection of the portraits together with the incredible foreword ‘The Morning of Childhood’ by Mr Arno Minkkinen … enjoy…

The exhibition is produced jointly by the Charleroi Museum of Photography with support from the ellen-k Fine Art Photography, Oslo. (Text derived from MEP)

Dreamt memories from Africa – William Ropp at the Stenersen Museum.

admin1 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:04:29 +0000

William Ropps show ‘Dreamt Memories from Africa’ will open at the Stenersenmuseum in Oslo on September 8th.

William Ropp lives and works in Nancy, France. His photographs have been exhibited extensively in museums and galleries around the world, and his work has been published in several books including one devoted to the Children series, as well a twenty-year retrospective, and the recently published ’Dreamt memories from Africa‘

“… One sees little innocence in Ropp’s vision of the child; the experience is already there and in place. In fact, some of Ropp’s children, at least to my eye, even seem to have the memory of the Holocaust about them – somehow in their dress and in their faces. But possibly I am only seeing one of my own obsessions reflected in Ropp’s mirror. His new work – his children of Mali, his African dream – might seem to present a social message, be a document of life in the third world, or present a vision as chilling as the fantasized terrors of Arbus, Tress, or Lux, but even his dream of Africa is a part of his larger collective dream of the child. Ropp told me that Mali was ‘hell’, and I am quite certain these children lack all the material luxuries of the West. But look at them. They are swimming, playing, fishing, doing all those things children do. Samuel Johnson in his novel Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia has the philosopher Imlac explain to Rasselas that ‘The Europeans’ are less unhappy than we, but they are not happy. Human life is every where a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.- Does the fact that their eyes glow so fiercely mean anything other than that they are inquisitive and as interested as any other child might be in this French photographer who had travelled so far to photograph them? Ropp’s vision is that of the eternal child wherever he or she might be. In the shaping of that vision and in the crafting of his art, he did something that had not been done before – he captured the collective portrait of us all when we were young -” Text by John Wood.

William Ropp will be present at the official opening, sceduled to 6 pm on Thursday September 8th.

The exhibition is curated by Selene Wendt and lasts till October 30th 2011.

The photographs are printed on CansonInfinity by Appelsin Kommunikasjon.

…enjoy…

INVITE /HIGHSPEED INSANiTY/ Finissage!!

admin1 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:26:39 +0000

‘If you are in Oslo this summer, the provocative exhibition /HIGHSPEED INSANiTY/ at Blomqvist is a must!’ (Lars Eivind Bones in Magasinet, Dagbladet).

What could possibly be more appropriate than a FINISSAGE for PUG#3 – the exhibition /HIGHSPEED INSANiTY/?

It has truly been an amazing journey, and we welcome you all to join us at Blomqvist, on the 10th of August at 6 pm to celebrate the exhibition, and the 6 amazing artists:

ROGER BALLEN//MARTIN DENKER//SALLY MANN//VIK MUNIZ//ANDRES SERRANO//JOEL-PETER WITKIN.

The art-critic Lars Elton will guide us through the exhibition – light refreshments will be served …

Opening hours /HIGH SPEED INSANiTY/ are Monday-Friday 10-5 and Saturday 12-4.

Last chance is August 14th.

Adress: Blomqvist, Tordenskioldsgate 5, Oslo.

Summer exhibitions in Risør – Opening 25th of June in Kunstparken at 12.30

admin1 — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:51:22 +0000

Steinar Christensen, Christian Houge and Anders Petersen are featured in Risør Kunstpark this summer. In addition, Tom Hatlestads exhibition “Tracing Freedom” will be on show in Fredsparken.

Mr Christensen has, for the first time in his long artistic career, operated a camera himself. In Risør he presents a landscape image that slowly transforms into a portrait of a chinese child, both as a videoinstallation and as stills.

The “Naxi musicians” – is a collage consisting of portraits of 8 traditional musicians in China, mounted so they surround an image of the highway leading in to Beijing. The fog in the mountains of Li Jang and Beijing ties the motifs together in a fragile filter, in which the opposites are tied together in one unit. Additional information on Steinar Christensen HERE.

Okurimono by Christian Houge: “My artwork is reflected through an internal process conveyed in an external expression through photography and film. I often invite the viewer to explore his own thoughts on some of the surviving taboos of our time. The projects are an exploration of topics including old age, death and sexual identity, where I find Mans longing for something larger than him/herself to be a recurring theme. Christian Houge will show a video installation and stills in Risør.

Additional information on Christian Houge HERE.

Anders Petersen (b. 1944) is one of Sweden’s most internationally recognized photographers. He is renowned for his stream of consciousness approach and his high contrast black and white imagery. His latest series From Back Home includes over 100 photographs of Värmland, Sweden, the majority of which were taken in 2008.

In From Back Home Petersen captures memories of melancholic times in the sparsely populated region of his teenage years. Petersen’s images present us with a slew of characters. People and situations we have all encountered, such as roughneck teenagers out looking for a good time, the old man who longs for companionship, and the kissing middle-aged couple. The people in the photographs are substitutes or stand-ins for the people in Petersen’s memories. However, friends and family are also represented. One of the most moving images is of Petersen’s mother. Despite her age she appears dignified, strong, and vital. Petersen has also photographed the inexplicable. The strange masked man peering out through the rain drenched window of his car. Or inanimate objects that Petersen imbues with life, such as the hollow-eyed snowman or the snake-like stick that seems to devour a tree.

This seemingly random collection of photographs is bound by one common denominator; they are images about seeking contact. The immediacy of a photograph, paired with Petersen’s chance encounters with his subjects, brings to mind the transience of our existence, and the understanding that home is subjective and indefinable, yet it is home that is at the core of our being. For Petersen the photographs taken in Värmland are much more than documentation, collectively they compose his self-portrait.

The exhibition is made possible through a collaboration with Fotografiska in Stockholm – text by Curator Michelle Marie Roy.

In the Peace Park in cooperation with Travel for Peace: Tom Hatlestad ”Tracing Freedom”. The exhibition is a result of Tom Hatlestads travel in a Land Rover from Norway to Bangladesh. Along the way he comes in contact with and photographs people who describe how they experience the concept of freedom. The outdoor exhibition opens in the Peace Park on Saturday 25 June at 5.30 pm, as part of the Peace Day in Risør.

The exhibition is open every day between 11 - 17 through to the 7th of August. Admission: 50,- Children under 16: Free.
The Cafe is open on Saturdays and Sundays.

Risør Fotosommer on Facebook.

/HIGHSPEED INSANiTY/ at Blomqvist Fine Art.

admin1 — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:54:26 +0000

The sales exhibition at Blomqvist is open from June 14th to August 14, 2011

Roger BALLEN / Martin DENKER / Sally MANN / Vik MUNIZ / Andres SERRANO and

Joel Peter WITKIN

[[Show as slideshow]]

ASYLUM BY ROGER BALLEN

The exhibition /HIGH SPEED INSANITY/ presents six independent artists. Their common denominator is their ability to deconstruct in order to construct, where photography is used as the form of artistic expression.

They all use recognizable references from the arts. In Witkin´s work one sees the older masters such as Botticelli, Possein and Courbet, in adjacent to the influence of Francisco Goya and Edvard Munch. The latter artists are also easily recognizable in Serrano´s provocation of religion. In Denker’s work one traces the influence that the collage artists have of the 20’s & 30’s such as Juan Miro, Max Ernst and later Ernst Schwitters. Roger Ballen´s world of the subconscious is often compared to Man Ray´s sense of form, revealing Ballen´s interest in Jean Dubuffet´s ‘Art Brut’. Even the classic sculptors such as Henry Moore and David Smith are prevalent in the exceptional works by Vic Muniz. In contrast, poetry and 19^thcentury photographers such as Julia Margareth Cameron and Eugene Atget have been Sally Mann´s source of inspiration in capturing the sensual innocence.

The artists investigate their environment and offer the viewer the option to individual interpretation. The intention of the exhibition is to gather a collection of artwork to challenge our illusions in order to fuel a debate.

“…Maybe these photographs can help us navigate through the obstacles of life? There are a lot of good opportunities in sound provocation. Good art raises questions, tears down borders and questions our ability to see and understand. It makes us reconsider our values and approach to life and other people. As long as it is not based on violence or abuse most things may be considered human. As Terentius, a roman playwright living from 190-159 BC, said: «I am a human being, so nothing human is strange to me.»”//excerpt from the catalogue text by Lars Elton

The title /HIGH SPEED INSANITY/ is a Martin Denker quote, and the exhibition is a result of a collaboration between PUG, the collector Jack Helgesen and Blomqvist Fine Art.

Save the date… ‘High Speed Insanity’

admin1 — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:43:29 +0000

PUG opens the exhibition ‘HIGH SPEED INSANITY’ at Blomqvist Auction House, June 15th at 6 PM. A full day seminar ‘Who holds the power to Collect’ will take place at Fotogalleriet and at Blomqvist on June 22nd.

PUG [Pop Up Gallery] is run by Ellen-K Syverstad & Anette Skuggedal, facilitating exhibitions & events where photography is the main form of artistic expression.

More information will follow… enjoy…

Steinar Christensen – Introducing “Blind Shepard” & recent work from China

admin1 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:49:01 +0000

The image “no 1″ is the first image in a new body of work titled “Blind Shepard”. The project is pure concept art, based on long studies, thorough planning and a synthesis of many years of thinking around aesthetic questions. When the whole composition is ready in the mind of the artist, he calls his photographer, Gunnar Mjaugedal, who under thorough – but silent – instruction helps mr Christensen to visualize his projects. We will post more “Blind Shepard” images shortly.

Also Mr Christensen has, for the first time in his long artistic career, operated a camera himself. The results have been presented at a couple of venues in Norway already, and we are pleased to post them here aswell. We present a landscape image that slowly transforms into a portrait of a chinese child. Finally the “Naxi musicians” – a collage consisting of portraits of 8 traditional musicians in China, mounted so they surround an image of the highway leading in to Beijing. The fog in the mountains of Li Jang and Beijing ties the motifs together in a fragile filter, in which the opposites are tied together in one unit.

[[Show as slideshow]]