Galleri Tom Christoffersen

exhibitions

Rachel Goodyear: the imaginary friend, 2008, pencil and water colour on paper, 42 x 30 cm

To Draw = to make a line picture or plane on a surface using a pencil, pen or crayon rather than paints.*
”To Draw” has several meanings. In context of the group exhibition at Galleri Tom Christoffersen to draw first of all means to make a line picture or plane on a surface using a pencil, pen or crayon rather than paints. The invited artists: Rachel Goodyear (UK), Joan Linder (US), Julie Nord (DK) and Morten Søkilde (DK) work exclusively or primarily with pencil, ink and pen on paper.

To Draw = to formulate or state a distinction, comparison, or parallel between two or more different things.*
RACHEL GOODYEAR’s figurative drawings often contain the doubling. Two characters presented as joined and distorted in a tormented relation where social etiquette no longer, or maybe never applied. The challenging desperation told calmly through acceptance and emptiness emanates in the space between the elements, which are carefully drawn with pencil on a relative expanse of very white paper. The subtle dashes of watercolour highlight tiny parts of the persons, hybrids or animals and make distinctions, comparisons and the most ambiguous exchanges come forth.

To Draw = to obtain information, a secret, or an opinion from somebody by questioning or pursuasion (often passive).*
JOAN LINDER’s conceptual drawings are investigative and self-observing, especially the selection from the series Resume (2008). Resume is Linder’s handwritten copies of the curriculum vitae of her role models. In common are the women’s outstanding careers on the modern and contemporary art scene and their additional choice of family. Becoming a mother herself, Linder found this a challenging constellation. Among others, Linder portrays Louise Bourgeois and Lee Bontecou; black on white by year of birth, exhibitions, art biennials and periods away from work. At the same time the younger artist herself is present by the choice of role models, her handwriting and the ink stains, which the patient process of questioning and re-scribing necessarily involves.

To Draw = to approach through time, or move toward a particular point or stage in something, especially its end.*
JULIE NORD’s characteristic black planes are an important compositional element, while distorted ‘human girls’ and alerted animals define the atmosphere in the narrative drawings. The series of ten small-scale, black/white works individually represent a surreal story bordering to delirium. They are new hybrids of old clichés as the inspiration from the aesthetics found in traditional illustrated children books is contrasted immediately by the deviant Rorschach-like ink stains and compulsory patterns. The larger, slightly coloured drawings breaks down genre as well and concentrate on time as ill-fated and cyclic - a mental space, where memories are present and death an explicit condition.

To Draw = to cause somebody’s eye, attention or interest to be directed towards somebody or something.*
MORTEN SØKILDE exhibits one work consisting of three portraits – pencil on paper. Two persons, Søkilde’s mother and father, are depicted in lost profile facing each other as if mirrored. Between them Morten himself is facing the viewer. In this careful study a lifelong relation is momentarily captured, kept and communicated through gazes. As audience we pass by and through a single glance we enter this (self)portrait’s confident play with directions of the eye. In the exchange the flatness of the drawing seems to merge with the space of the gallery and the border between the inaccessible and the accessible is blurred.

TO DRAW puts the media’s bias to the intimate forth. Qualities of the small scale, the experimenting study, a moderate use of colour and the informal sketch are present in the final drawings, which tend to touch upon existential questions in an all but black and white approach.

*The excerpts from a list of definitions of TO DRAW is used by the permission of the Lebanese architect Rana Haddad.

Selected works from the exhibition

TO DRAW

Rachel Goodyear (UK) (PDF)

Joan Linder (US) (PDF)

Julie Nord (PDF)

Morten Søkilde

short bios (PDF)

Press Release in Danish (PDF)

Duration

07.05 - 20.06.2009

Opening

THURSDAY 07.05.2009 at 5-8 pm

Galleri Tom Christoffersen is closed Friday 08.05.2009 because of public holiday

Rachel Goodyear is represented by The International 3, Manchester and by Pippy Houldsworth, London (UK)
Joan Linder is represented by Mixed Greens, New York, (US)
Julie Nord is represented by Pippy Houldsworth, London (UK)