Galleri Nicolai Wallner is pleased to present a group exhibition with works by Chris Johanson, David Shrigley, E.B. Itso, Jakob Kolding, Joachim Koester, Julie Lænkholm and Poul Gernes.

Exploring themes of power, inhabiting and creating spaces, and connectedness or a lack thereof, the selected group of works can be divided into three movements.

The first room focuses on how space and structures are defined, highlighting the link between infrastructure, the use of physical space, architecture and power dynamics. E.B. Itso’s work features five photographs of an occupied house in Copenhagen where occupants were in the process of sealing the house from the inside, in an act of resistance against an upcoming police raid that same day.

Jakob Kolding’s triptych of collages feature bodily imagery. Both sensual and dominating, the immediacy and intensity of the element used combined with the tight, structural outlay of the works convey an almost electrical feeling of movement and gesture.

Joachim Koester’s series Boarded Up Houses followed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Taken throughout American cities starting in 2009, the stark imagery of boarded up houses show the physical manifestations of what once was.

In this context, the more radical element of Poul Gernes’ practice come to the surface of his work Untitled (Tic tac toe painting). By painting within a strict framework, Gernes believed he could remove traces of his own hand, deliberately challenging the role of the artist as important to the interpretation of the work. Ironically, almost 60 years later this way of painting has become recognisable as Gernes.

In the second room, two works on textile—one by Chris Johanson and one by Julie Lænkholm—draw on the strength of what can be found on a more metaphysical level. Chris Johanson’s painting on found drop cloth reveals a meditative process which is slow and deliberate, creating a calm, open headspace for Johanson which permeates the work, inviting us to join him.

Echoing some of these sentiments, Lænkholm’s practice has its roots in the ideas and the methods centred around collective learning. Julie Lænkholm’s works bring us into a world where things feel as if they are in continual evolution, almost as if the works remain alive long after they seem to be finished or in a final state. We become participants of the work, and in a way we activate the work while the work simultaneously activates us as well.

The third group of work is by David Shrigley. A row of black and white drawings depicting the realities every day life and banal situations runs between the two rooms. Sharp and humorous, their levity makes way for a deeper understanding of what it is to be human and what brings us together in many ways.