ALEJANDRA VON HARTZ GALLERY New openings

Space 2:
MALENE LANDGREEN
Voyage and Rhythm – A Painting Installation

April 13th – June 1st, 2012
Opening Reception for the artists: Friday, April 13th, 2012, from 6 to 9pm

“If there are geometric forms, it is because these simple and manageable elements have appeared suitable for the distribution of colors whose relations constitute the real object of our search, but these geometric forms do not characterize our art. The distribution of colors can be effected as well with complex forms, such as flowers, etc. … only the handling of these would be a little more delicate.”
Sonia Delaunay, speaking at the Sorbonne, 1927

Alejandra von Hartz Gallery is pleased to invite you to the first solo exhibition by Danish artist MALENE LANDGREEN, one of Scandinavia’s most prolific and interesting abstract painters today. For her debut at the gallery, the artist will show a site specific installation including a selection of new paintings from 2012 produced in her Berlin’ studio.

In her paintings, Malene Landgreen explores the psychological, emotional, cognitive and material potentialities of color and space on two-dimensional surfaces. As she states: “The colors that I am blending embody an active emotional vocabulary which can, without the use of words or forms, elucidate a tendency or a potential. In their simplest form, the colors have infinite capacities; and by combining them, you manage, in the abstract form, to reach many different places. There’s a whole world coming into a being, a world where colors come to be exponents of something else, where the interrelations among the colors, the proportions and the contrasts can, in a certain manner, be likened to what’s happening in real life – while, at the same time, it’s just a painting.”.

Landgreen works mostly in large scale, either on big canvases or directly on walls – often combining the two, as will be the case of the installation at the von Hartz Gallery. The resulting works are strikingly sensual and playful in their combination of colors, extremely complex in terms of their visual communication, and constantly and spatially intriguing. Earlier works reveal her insights on a smaller and more intimate scale, as in her many series of paintings on paper.
The title ‘Voyage and Rhythm’ refers to the idea and experience of color and movement, and is rooted in the power, versatility and vibrancy of colors as primary structural elements. Also to the implicit spatial capabilities and illusions that one color next to or upon another can so easily elicit.
Landgreen has been exhibiting her work in Denmark and internationally since 1995. Recent solo exhibitions include: “RED BLUE MOTION TOTEM”, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, DK, 2010; “COLOR STATE”, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, DK, 2009 (awarded by the Danish Art Foundation),(catalogue available); “Jade”, ANDERSEN_S Contemporary, Copenhagen, 2006 (awarded by the Danish Art Foundation); “Libertine Appearance And Disappearance”, DCA Gallery, New York, 2004. Some group exhibitions are: Dynamisk Abstraktion, Skovgaardmuseet, DK, 2009; “To The Wall’, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, DK, 2008 (awarded by the Danish Art Foundation): “Roundabout”, Berlin, DE. 2008; “Matisse &”, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, DK, 2005 (catalogue available). Future exhibitions include: “Salutes in Color”, Galerie MøllerWitt, Aarhus, DK, (solo) and “Colour Me In”, Kunstmuseet Trapholt, DK (Group).
A selection of In Situ projects by Malene Landgreen includes: Aarhus Universitet, iNANO Faculty DK, 2012; Hospice, Sankt Lucas Stiftelsen, DK, 2011; Ballerup City Hall, DK, 2011; New Postal Terminal, Oslo, NO, 2009; World Championship Pavillion 2011, Oslo, NO; 2006 The Danish City of Radio and Television, Segment 3, DK; 2001 Aalborg Airport, DK (awarded), 2001,
She has received several awards: Eckersberg Medaillen 2005, The Danish Art Foundations Grant 2004-2007, The Danish Art Foundations Exhibition Award 2006, 2008 and 2009 and Martha and René Gauguin’s Foundations Artist Grant, just to mention a few. In 2011 she was selected to receive the prestigious lifelong grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture.
Her works form part of many private and institutional collections, amongst them SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, ARoS Museum of Art, Aarhus, Denmark, Ny Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark.
Her work has been reviewed in a wide range of magazines and artblogs e.g.: World Pictures: DESIGN from SCANDINAVIA no. 23, DeFarver no.59, dailytonic, blueverticalstudio and Trendland. Recent publications include: Art On Site, In Situ, Arkitektens Forlag, 2012. Wall Art: Wallpaper, Decoration, Painting. DopressBooks, 2011. Staging Space, Scenic Interiors and Spatial Experiences. R. Klanten, L. Freiss, 2010. COLOR STATE Malene Landgreen, exhibition catalog, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2009. Matisse &, Exhibition catalog, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, 2005. PAINTBOX extensions, Exhibition Catalog, 2004. Her own Place Malene Landgreen In Situ Projects 1997-2003, Trine Nygaard, 2003 and COLOR VOLUME, Exhibition Catalog, Kunsthallen Brandts, 1999.
Landgreen holds a 1994 MA Hons. in Fine Arts specialized in Painting from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. She currently lives and works both in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Berlin, Germany, and holds a position as member of The Danish Academy.

For more information, please contact the gallery at info@alejandravonhartz.com or call 305.438.0220.

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council Committee for Visual Arts.
The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts.