Afternoon at the Fringe. Her ink drawings and watercolours have achieved critical significance due to their exploration of a surreal universe. These scenes appear familiar to us through our recollection of childhood literature, a land of fairytales and fantasy. The effect is one of entrapment - simultaneously captivating and disturbing.
Afternoon at the Fringe
Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present Danish artist Julie
Nord’s first UK solo exhibition Afternoon at the Fringe from 22 June
to 21 July. Since completing her education at The Royal Danish
Academy of Fine Arts in 2001 Nord has received tremendous national
and international success with recent exhibitions at AroS-Aarhus Art
Museum, Denmark 21C Museum, Kentucky, Malmö Kunsthal, Creative
Center, Shanghai and Singapore Art Museum to name but a few.
Julie Nord’s ink drawings and watercolours have achieved critical
significance due to their exploration of a surreal universe. These
scenes appear familiar to us through our recollection of childhood
literature, a land of fairytales and fantasy, and yet they are darkly
resurrected from this period of innocence – appearing almost
apocalyptic in their kitsch-gothic reproduction. Nord’s
interpretative works create a space between the unquestioning
innocence of youth and the cynical awareness that develops from
maturity. Still the works remain inherently fictional due to Nord’s
play on proportion and caricature style. The viewer is lured into a
false sense of security then shocked by the newly sinister scene.
The effect is one of entrapment – simultaneously captivating and
disturbing. Nord’s drawings conjure a nostalgic past poisoned by
the unsettling reality awoken to in adulthood.
Julie Nord has enjoyed global success with major group projects
including Through the Rabbit Hole: Sleights of Scale and Flights of
Fancy at 21C Museum, Kentucky; Girlpower & Boyhood at Talbot Rice
Gallery, Edinburgh; MALM 2 at Malmö Kunsthal, Sweden; Fiction@Love:
Forever Young Land at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; Ultra
New Vision of Contemporary Art at the Singapore Art Museum and Fairy
Tales Forever at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark. Solo shows include
Elsewhere at Mogadishni; The Cycle at la Caixa Foundation, Spain and
From Wonderland with Love at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark.
Private View Thursday 21 June 6.30 – 8.30pm
Houldsworth - 50 Pall Mall Deposit
124-128 Barlby Road - London
Free admission