Thordis Adalsteinsdottir "Call On Me With Your Softness"
57 STUX + HALLER Gallery
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Thordis' paintings and sculptures are reductive visual distillations of brief yet multifaceted, insightful instants, akin to the perfect ensemble of words arranged by a Haiku poet to frame a great image.
Thordis' artworks present emotionally charged moments in a weightless manner, and these light, personable narratives are often hilariously sinister and casually violent. She produces symbolically arranged, disturbing psychological interiors populated by peculiarly stylized figures of friends, family and animals that often float in space. She paints in an ultra flat manner with carefully nursed details, interrupted by repetitive freehand patterns and unexpected pops of eccentric textures.
In her sculptures, the paper maché surfaces and gentle colors create a toy-like innocence that masks the underlying darkness for the ripe moment to take the viewer by surprise: a cheeky horse crowned with flamboyant orange branches that's slightly disfigured, a bushy-haired dog with human legs that's sneaking around a painted sofa. These oversized sculptures are ambassadors that extend the atmosphere of her paintings beyond the canvas to directly occupy the viewer's world, introducing our very surroundings as background. Removed from the snug constellation of her painted scenes, these fantastically rogue agents trespass the boundary between art and reality and become even more invasive and confronting.
Even though her paintings achieve extremely cohesive rhythms in composition, Thordis does not work from sketches, and this raw spontaneity clashes wonderfully with the refinement of her controlled execution and laconic composition. These visions are dynamic and electrifying, yet stable enough to capture and enclose her wildly imaginative, explosive spirit with great levity.
Media
Schedule
from September 13, 2012 to October 20, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-09-13 from 18:00 to 20:00