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2/3/2006

Jonas Hvid Sondergaard

Bendixen Contemporary Art, Valby

bendixen contemporary art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Danish artist Jonas Hvid Sondergaard. The paintings of Jonas Hvid Sondergaard revolve more around unexpected tensions and peculiar inconsistencies than the simple juxtapositions of contrary forces. What at first glance seems to be a play between representation and abstraction reveals itself to be a meditation on the very nature of abstraction in our everyday lives. Recognizable structures and settings are merged with abstract, often geometric, forms and motifs. The organic world is turned upside down, a destabilization resulting in gaps that become entrances and exits for the viewer.

Furthermore, Nordic influences and themes and the occasional nod to the sublime are also part of these discordant elements that compel us to question the visible forms themselves - are they really simplified familiar structures, or are they abstract forms, which our brains convert to everyday edifices. For example, in one work we see that the sky is at our feet while the ground is hovering above, while in another work a ship nonchalantly attempts to sail down a street. These are the spaces Hvid leaves us for questioning and for creating new understandings of our world.

Indeed, Hvid’s most figurative moments can also be his most abstract, particularly in the case of his “balconies", which in a sense can be seen as painting’s answer to the Duchampian ready-made. It is precisely this aspect of Hvid’s work that evokes a connection to early modernism, and yet his is another, altogether different, investigation. Though seemingly far removed from one another, both his small and large-scale works have each their role in this process; the smaller works acting much like close-ups of the larger works.

Though a private investigation for Hvid, he nonetheless helps us to discover something about what it means to be human and about our experiences of and in the world. By drawing the viewer into his personal realm through these momentary gaps or ostensible windows, the possibility arises for the unexpected. The familiar landscapes, as still and tranquil as they are chaotic and dynamic, are infused with visual codes from our everyday, urban lives and we, in these shifting spaces, board a vessel of our own awareness.

Jonas Hvid Sondergaard’s was just recently on view along with Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Jens Fange and Johan Nobell at Viborg’s Kunsthallen Brenderigarden. His work was also recently seen in the “Exit" exhibition at Gammel Strand in Copenhagen. Bendixen contemporary art is located in the new arts community of renovated warehouses on Carl Jacobsens Vej in Valby. Additional information is available from the gallery.

Bendixen Contemporary Art
Carl Jacobsen Vej 20 4, sal. 2500 Valby

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