Tor-Magnus Lundeby
dal 24/9/2008 al 24/10/2008
Segnalato da
24/9/2008
Tor-Magnus Lundeby
Mogadishni Cph, Copenhagen
Cityscape Colour Anarchy (Prospect Disorder II). From numerous households in his neighbourhood Lundeby has for a long time been collecting printing house colour codes like Tetra-Tops, the ones hidden within cartons and boxes, through which he has found his obsessive way of approaching sculpture as well as implementing an additional language to his paintings.
What happens when a wide array of media, including electronic music, science
fiction, computer games, comic book characters, astronomic pictures and charts are
all sampled in oil paintings and sculptures? This is what the Norwegian artist
Tor-Magnus Lundeby will explore through the exhibition “Cityscape Colour Anarchy
(Prospect Disorder II)” at MOGADISHNI. The gallery proudly presents the third solo
exhibition by Tor-Magnus Lundeby (b. 1966) who is born in Frederiksstad, Norway and
currently lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.
From numerous households in his neighbourhood Lundeby has for a long time been
collecting printing house colour codes like Tetra-Tops, the ones hidden within
cartons and boxes, through which he has found his obsessive way of approaching
sculpture as well as implementing an additional language to his paintings. Rather
than focusing on recycling and trash, this is more an approach towards the
possibilities of what people usually find useless and leave behind. Lundeby focuses
on elements that people are not aware of because they are hidden and stuck in the
corners of cigarette boxes and milk cartons.
Lundeby imagines these small colour squares and dots lined up on the print codes as
being windows on cylindrical towers in a futuristic architectural anarchy. Through
these windows his paintings become alive and through both sculptures and paintings
the spectator is faced with an organic futuristic architecture, floating in a
characteristically infinite monochrome universe. In Lundeby’s paintings he has moved
towards an organic aspect of architecture despite his obsessiveness with order,
number and structures which creates the opposite when the colour codes are taken out
of their original function and sampled together.
What can however at first sight be seen as a macro image in Lundeby’s paintings can
at closer inspection appear as a depiction of a micro image. The architectural plan
of a massive structure can be easily misread as the detail of a very elaborate
mechanical piece or an intricate abstract form, always composed by planned lines in
an extraordinarily balanced composition. This playfulness with scale levels is
recurrent in his work and is always opening a vast field of possible and surprising
significations.
Lundeby’s art constantly alternates between music, architecture and landscape, and
often with the fascination of structure and the twist of prospect. The worlds of
music and music-culture take a privileged position in Lundeby’s works as general
codes for personal fantasies and subversive expectations. In this context, a
psychedelic lore is employed not as a retro gesture but as an artistic method for
mapping the self and stimulating the experience of the now.
Lundeby is currently exhibiting at the Carnegie Art Award 2008/2009 and has during
the last couple of years exhibited at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, Moderna Museet,
Sweden, The Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art,
Oslo, Norway and Museum of Modern Art KIASMA, Finland. His works are also
represented in collections at The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, The Swedish Art
Council, Norsk Hydro and The Arts Council Norway. He graduated from Vestlandet’s Art
Academy in Bergen, Norway in 1996.
Opening reception Thursday September 25th at 5-7 PM.
Mogadishni Cph
Carl Jacobsensvej 16 opg 6. 3.sal - Copenhagen
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 11 AM - 5 PM, Saturday 12 – 3 PM
Free admission