PRESS RELEASE

Per Traasdahl

Mensch über Mensch

In his second solo exhibition at Stalke Galleri, Per Traasdahl presents three paintings from the series Unter uns (Among Us) and a group of new pencil drawings. Traasdahl, 39, residing in Berlin and Wetzikon, Switzerland, has since 1998 focused his figurative artwork on these two very different areas: the approximately seven square meter large paintings appear with their 'larger than life' groups of people on wall-white backgrounds as plastic room installations, while the small pencil drawings unfold a finely nuanced and understated approach under titles such as First Chamber Play, Second Chamber Play, etc.

The exhibition also includes new photographic editions reproduced from the large paintings.

The exhibition title Mensch über Mensch means, in everyday German, human telling stories about humans. However, the wordplay also encompasses meanings such as humans stacked on top of each other, humans distributed in different power categories, and finally—if you remove a space—the famous/infamous Nietzschean concept of Übermensch(Overhuman)

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Per Traasdahl equips his work with ambiguities and contradictions before sending it out into the world.

Andreas Jürgensen, since January this year, a leading curator at the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, wrote about Traasdahl's works in the catalog for Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik's Biennale for New Danish Art (1999–2000):
"...Large and powerful in format like lush Baroque paintings, but simultaneously delicate and ethereal in their content. Here are no classic heroes, no struggle with fate, no flesh, and no desire. These puppet-like figures look silently at us, clumped together in a phantom-like cohesion. They stand next to each other but are not truly with each other, connected but without knowing why..."

In Per Traasdahl's unique human laboratory, one might ask whether these are vividly painted puppets or poorly painted real humans. The petrification inherent in a drawing or painting's stillness becomes a fundamental condition for Traasdahl's content. Neither naturalistic nor photographic interpretation helps here.

If the viewer sees concrete stories or even expressions of contemporary states, it is entirely their responsibility: there are no reassuring references, no clear themes: "You get what you give."

Last year, Traasdahl was represented in exhibitions such as Face à Face in Lucerne, the European Painting Prize Exhibition in Ostend, Belgium, and at art fairs in Berlin and Basel.

In parallel with the exhibition, the catalog Mensch über Mensch, published by Kunstnetzwerk Verlag, Munich, will be released, featuring texts written for the occasion by the Swiss-Hungarian author Melinda Nadj Abonji.

Mensch über Mensch, Kunstnetzwerk Verlag, Munich, 32 pages, Hardcover, DKK 90.

The exhibition runs until May 26th.

PRESS RELEASE

HORNSLETH
RAPE KILL STEAL BURN

Stalke Galleri will exhibit new works by Kristian Hornsleth in the form of paintings, photos, and sculptures.

As the title suggests, the exhibition is based on what Hornsleth himself says:

"…in ordinary human enterprise. I am fascinated by myself and the way the world touches me vividly while still giving me glimpses of indescribable happiness—it is a banal yet eternally valid life view, always challenging the art lover with his own aversion toward the decadent duality between longing and quality in the epistemological-theoretical tug-of-war…‘know yourself’—or rather: Art lover, screw yourself…”

Hornsleth's career appears to be on track. After a personally challenging time involving divorce, bankruptcies, and drug abuse, he is now strongly back. He spent a couple of years in Berlin and Italy, partly due to grants from the Danish Arts Foundation. Among other accomplishments, he has established ongoing collaborations with four reputable galleries in Europe, with planned exhibitions far into the future, as well as several consultancy projects with major architecture firms and advertising agencies. Not least, the sales and prices of his works have grown significantly in recent years.