"Nude With Forms", 2012, oil on canvas, cm 140 x 210





Sylvester Hegner

 

 

“THE BACK IS A HOLE”

 

 

Opening reception: Friday, September 28,  5-8 pm

 

September 28 – October 27, 2012

 

Address:   Palægade 5,    1261 Copenhagen K. 
Phone: +45  2125 2325

e-mail: bendixen@contemporary-art.dk

 

Tues – Friday: 12 – 17 ,   
Sat: 12 – 15

 

 

A photographic negative, a faded image from a printer with low ink - what ever the association; the motives of Sylvester Hegner’s paintings seem to be leaving the canvas. Or as he puts it himself: “I like to think of my work as figurative paintings that try to turn their back on themselves”. Although the motives are well-known from the the history of art, the reference only concerns the form and not the content of the original paintings. In fact, Sylvester Hegner is mainly occupied with painting for the sake of painting itself and deals with the formal work of motives that are “over-used” or heavily paraphrased, such as female nudes, views, fruit bowls or other types of still-life.

 

Time passes - or has passed already; some motives are painted twice in two different paintings, and consequently; changing the colours or the balance between light and shadow changes the entire painting and makes some of the motives almost unrecognisable. In his own words, Sylvester Hegner likes the fragillity of the motive, and the idea that if he continues to paint, just one more brush stroke of paint will eliminate the motive completely and turn the painting abstract.

 

The experiments with motives, colours and shades makes Sylvester Hegner’s paintings visually vivid. The colour breaks into soft flecks, resembling chemical grains that reveal themselves in an over-extension of a photograhic enlargement. In this particular kind of pictorial reproduction, what is shown on the canvas resembles remnants of figuration, residues from an image that used to be there. Repetitions that are condensated into its own pictorial meaning.

 

b. 1985 , Education :

2007 – 2012, The Royal Danish Academy of fine Arts, Prof. Thomas Locher

2010 – 2011, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Prof. Tal R

2011 – 2012, Universität der Künste Berlin, Prof. Thomas Zipp

 

 

Recent shows:

2012:  “Oranges and apples”, C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Dresden, DE, “Ich wittre Morgenluft”, KIT, Düsseldorf, DE,  “Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art at Chinese European Artcenter”, Xiamen, CN, “Show of the week”, Projektraum des Freien Museum, Berlin, DE , “Tastenspiele…”, Musikinstumenten-Museum Berlin, DE

 

2011: “Mein Esel und ich”, Pfaffenhofen Kunstverein, Phaffenhofen, DE, “Yellow galore”, Goodbye blue Mondays, New York, US, “Stand and deliver”, Schæfer grafisk værksted, Copenhagen, DK, “Fremdgang international”, ODG, Düsseldorf, DE, “All you can bear”, HFBK Galerie, Hamburg, DE

 

2010: “Things as faces, faces as things”, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen, DK

“Empire of dust”, Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the EU, Brüssel, BE, “Remain in light”, Gallery Syf, Warszawa, PL

"The transition is now fluid; matter seems luminescent", TTC Gallery, Copenhagen, DK

"Hoy3" The Pier Art Centre, Stormness, UK

 

 

 

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bendixen contemporary art
Palægade 5
DK-1261 København K
Phone 36160325

www.bendixenart.dk