PRESS RELEASE

Stalke Galleri invites you to an exhibition featuring paintings and works on paper by

• Anne Bennike
• Kristian Devantier
• Hans Peterson
• Kathrine Ærtebjerg
  

It is with great pleasure that Stalke Galleri opens its doors for a group exhibition with Anne Bennike, Kristian Devantier, Hans Peterson, and Kathrine Ærtebjerg. All four have been invited to showcase paintings and works on paper together, all working with a naïve figuration that encompasses a deep existential approach. The glimmer in their works suggests serious reflections, and behind the seemingly adventurous expressions lurks an anxious reality.

Anne Bennike (b. 1974) uses drawing as a form of escapism, a way to approach the dream in the waking state. Her drawings are inspired by travels and daily observations, interwoven with dreamlike scenes. Like the dreams of the night are a transformation of the day’s events, her drawings are a transformation of reality, seen through a shared optical lens. With her dreams, an optic not always immediately comprehensible, but one that is psychologically stimulating, she creates a remarkable adventure. Bennike creates a dreamlike, poetic universe, where darkness and light play side by side.

Kristian Devantier (b. 1971) works with colorful paintings that combine cutouts of images from advertisements and newspapers. This combination of clean colors and photographs gives rise to a surprising and peculiar pictorial world. A special play arises between the use of color and representation. Devantier’s paintings with faceless figures appear simple and immediately readable in their pure form, but at the same time, these creations are sad and lonely in their stiff, clumsy shapes without identity. Devantier’s art alternates between lighthearted expression and deeper, heavier content; a play between form and surface filled with existential reflections.

Hans Peterson (b. 1963) paints works characterized by the use of clear colors and figurative representation, where flat backgrounds are inhabited by people. They immediately appear normal and recognizable, but as one studies them longer, they dissolve into abstract brushstrokes and strained realism. Images transform from cheerful portraits to merciless explorations of the transience of the face and the fragility of identity.

Kathrine Ærtebjerg (b. 1969) is inspired by fairytales, comics, and children’s books. Her works move in a world of fantasy that has both unsettling and poetic overtones, which is also reflected in her expression of her whimsical titles. Her themes revolve around identity, sexuality, and love, unfolding a feminine universe with dolls and dollhouses. While what first seems like a naive belief in faith and right scenes unfolds into a peculiar landscape populated by unsettling creatures. Ærtebjerg creates a world somewhere between the fairytales of childhood and the nightmares of adults.

Anne Bennike, Kristian Devantier, Hans Peterson, Kathrine Ærtebjerg.

Stalke Galleri, Vesterbrogade 184, Frederiksberg.

A deep sense of community is not immediately apparent at Stalke, where the gallery in Vesterbrogade has gathered four younger artists (born between 1963 and 1974), so different that the exhibition splits into four small separate shows.

And yet there is unity: the eldest, Hans Peterson, flirts in his partially figurative works with the same kitschy and naïve, fantastical children's book universe that serves as the foundation for Kathrine Ærtebjerg’s more "girlish" paintings.

The eroticism perceived in Ærtebjerg as a drowsy sexuality grows in the youngest participant, Anne Bennike, into an aggressive, almost destructive defense against the intrusion of the opposite sex. Here, an attempt is made to grapple not only with the sexual but also with the narcotically addictive reality-fiction of today’s reality TV programs.

In "Hi Mom, I am on TV," she depicts the moment where the ambiguous character places the pistol to the temple to prepare for the next second of definitive fame.

And an elf-like figure in one of Kristian Devantier’s drawings is unfolded by Hans Peterson into a small tribute to "The King." Kristian Devantier demonstrates skill both in smaller formats and slightly larger ones.

Regardless of whether it’s a half-hour sketch from "Sunday, November 9, at 10:00 PM," or the most distinctive work in the exhibition, his paintings with grotesquely distorted "Gorky Park"-like figures, Devantier successfully frees his individual expression.

Kristian Devantier is the highlight of the exhibition, and if you want to enjoy more of his faceless figure company, there are both paintings, collages, and several amusing small drawings at Copenhagen Project Room’s separate exhibition (which can also be viewed tomorrow, Saturday).

Peter Michael Hornung

Politiken 28.11.2003

Recommended

Young Hopes

With the afternoon opening, the well-established Stalke Galleri presents an exhibition of four young figures who are on their way to making their mark in the Danish art scene. Common to them is a figurative, seemingly innocent, fabulously inspired visual language, drawing inspiration from fairytales and children's drawings—a language that increasingly appears to address the nightmares of adulthood and, in part, examines the fundamental conditions of existence. The four are Anne Bennike (born 1974), Kristian Devantier (born 1971), Hans Peterson (born 1963), and Kathrine Ærtebjerg.

By Torben Weirup