Anders Kjellesvik
Anders Kjellesvik’s paintings, prints, and sculptures are based on his travels–both physical and imaginative. The faces in his grainy, monochrome prints are typically blurred, turned away, cropped out, or at a distance, offering a generalized impression of an event, much like a hazy memory devoid of specific details. His paintings abstract his ambiguous narratives further, reimagining them in deep, cool tones of violets, blues, and greens. A jungle in this color palette connects otherwise autonomous depictions of a pool, horses, a tennis player, and a dancer. Although his subject matter is collected during his worldly expeditions, Kjellesvik’s reductive dream-like expression imbues them with an otherworldliness.
Since 2004, Kjellesvik has also been collaborating with fellow Norwegian artist Andreas Siqueland under the name aiPotu, Utopia spelled backwards. A form of social practice, the artists perform temporary interventions during their travels, such as building a public shower in an Irish creek or erecting a monument in a small Norwegian community of 20 unique flags honouring nomadic groups not represented by an official flag.
Solo exhibitions of Kjellesvik’s work have been presented at Trykkeriet, Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Bergen and Nordisk Kunstnarsenter in Dale, among other venues. His work has been included in …
Anders Kjellesvik’s paintings, prints, and sculptures are based on his travels–both physical and imaginative. The faces in his grainy, monochrome prints are typically blurred, turned away, cropped out, or at a distance, offering a generalized impression of an event, much like a hazy memory devoid of specific details. His paintings abstract his ambiguous narratives further, reimagining them in deep, cool tones of violets, blues, and greens. A jungle in this color palette connects otherwise autonomous depictions of a pool, horses, a tennis player, and a dancer. Although his subject matter is collected during his worldly expeditions, Kjellesvik’s reductive dream-like expression imbues them with an otherworldliness.
Since 2004, Kjellesvik has also been collaborating with fellow Norwegian artist Andreas Siqueland under the name aiPotu, Utopia spelled backwards. A form of social practice, the artists perform temporary interventions during their travels, such as building a public shower in an Irish creek or erecting a monument in a small Norwegian community of 20 unique flags honouring nomadic groups not represented by an official flag.
Solo exhibitions of Kjellesvik’s work have been presented at Trykkeriet, Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Bergen and Nordisk Kunstnarsenter in Dale, among other venues. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow, Malmø Kunstmuseum, and Gruneløkka Kunsthall in Oslo.
Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, Germany