Kent Henricksen
24 Feb - 20 Mar 2007
Kent Henricksen
Gales and Gasps
Opening reception: 24 February 2007, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition duration: 24 February – 20 March 2007
We are pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of the American artist Kent Henricksen at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen.
Kent Henricksen’s artistic materials consist of reprints of French Toile de Jouy fabrics, which he overlays with embroidery. For his 2005 exhibition at c/o - Atle Gerhardsen he applied hoods, masks and tapestries to baroque scenery, alienated from the original setting, thereby expressing a careless harmony.
The title of Kent Henricksen’s new exhibition “Gales and Gasps” at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen alludes to air in motion: from powerful storms to the most gentle breaths. And air also moves as it falls: the printed and embroidered tapestries show people in free fall, irresistibly drawn by the earth’s attraction. Personified winds appear not so much to envelope the falling people, as to underline the peril of the situation: their winged, grotesque faces have something demonic about them, the fall precedes the collision – even if this is not explicit. The rulings of Fortuna, the goddess of fate, are usually arbitrary and in the moment of certainty the fall can already be inevitable.
Events such as groundbreaking scientific and geographic discoveries, wars and counter-reformations shape the Baroque era, demolishing human assumptions of a stable world order. Kent Henricksen’s figures thus lose their sense of orientation in their Baroque decorum. But also people dressed in contemporary attire are to be found in the historicized tapestries in front of a cloudy blue backdrop – an allusion to present predicament?
On the other hand, falling also provides an opportunity, as the figures are ‘neither in contact with earthly, nor with divine spheres, rather with a space in between’ (Kent Henricksen), in which everything appears to be possible - as in a dream.
Kent Henricksen was born in New Haven in 1974. He studied English literature at the University of Colorado and lives and works in New York.
In 2007, Kent Henricksen will also show new works at a solo show with John Connelly Presents in New York.
We would also like to draw attention to Lothar Hempel’s solo exhibition “Alphabet City” in Le Magasin, Grenoble, which will be running from 10 February to 6 May 2007.
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries, c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel.: +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at http://www.atlegerhardsen.com.
c/o – Atle Gerhardsen
Holzmarktstraße 15-18
S-Bahnbogen 46
10179 Berlin
© Kent Henricksen
'Back to Above'
2007
53H x 48W x 4D inches
Embroidery thread and silkscreen on cotton
Gales and Gasps
Opening reception: 24 February 2007, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition duration: 24 February – 20 March 2007
We are pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of the American artist Kent Henricksen at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen.
Kent Henricksen’s artistic materials consist of reprints of French Toile de Jouy fabrics, which he overlays with embroidery. For his 2005 exhibition at c/o - Atle Gerhardsen he applied hoods, masks and tapestries to baroque scenery, alienated from the original setting, thereby expressing a careless harmony.
The title of Kent Henricksen’s new exhibition “Gales and Gasps” at c/o – Atle Gerhardsen alludes to air in motion: from powerful storms to the most gentle breaths. And air also moves as it falls: the printed and embroidered tapestries show people in free fall, irresistibly drawn by the earth’s attraction. Personified winds appear not so much to envelope the falling people, as to underline the peril of the situation: their winged, grotesque faces have something demonic about them, the fall precedes the collision – even if this is not explicit. The rulings of Fortuna, the goddess of fate, are usually arbitrary and in the moment of certainty the fall can already be inevitable.
Events such as groundbreaking scientific and geographic discoveries, wars and counter-reformations shape the Baroque era, demolishing human assumptions of a stable world order. Kent Henricksen’s figures thus lose their sense of orientation in their Baroque decorum. But also people dressed in contemporary attire are to be found in the historicized tapestries in front of a cloudy blue backdrop – an allusion to present predicament?
On the other hand, falling also provides an opportunity, as the figures are ‘neither in contact with earthly, nor with divine spheres, rather with a space in between’ (Kent Henricksen), in which everything appears to be possible - as in a dream.
Kent Henricksen was born in New Haven in 1974. He studied English literature at the University of Colorado and lives and works in New York.
In 2007, Kent Henricksen will also show new works at a solo show with John Connelly Presents in New York.
We would also like to draw attention to Lothar Hempel’s solo exhibition “Alphabet City” in Le Magasin, Grenoble, which will be running from 10 February to 6 May 2007.
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries, c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel.: +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at http://www.atlegerhardsen.com.
c/o – Atle Gerhardsen
Holzmarktstraße 15-18
S-Bahnbogen 46
10179 Berlin
© Kent Henricksen
'Back to Above'
2007
53H x 48W x 4D inches
Embroidery thread and silkscreen on cotton