Claydies at Ann Linnemann Galleri

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Claydiesselfies - an exhibition of the work of Karen Kjælgård-Larsen and Tina Broksø at Officinet - the gallery of Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere - was unfortunately disrupted by the closure of galleries during the lockdown of the city with the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

This exhibition, at the gallery of Ann Linnemann in Kronprinsessegade, is a welcome chance to see some of the works shown in that larger exhibition in the Spring.

Again it is possible to take selfies 'wearing' some of the full-sized ceramics of vests and T-shirts. If that is difficult to imagine then just think about those old seaside and fairground attractions with large painted cartoons of large ladies and skinny men in Edwardian swimming costumes without faces but with large holes where people stick through their faces from the back to be photographed.

The t-shirts with a Claydies logo on the chest or a string vest or a pleated skirt are obviously an ironic parody that comments on our obsession with both fashion and with taking pictures of ourselves or having our faces in every shot to prove we were there and show what a fantastic time we were having. But these huge pots are also a phenomenal affirmation of the ceramic skills of the two potters.

As I said in my review of the initial exhibition, the best cartoonists are usually highly-skilled artists who understand completely the techniques and skills in drawing that form the basis for their work. You have to master an art before you can subvert it. Here, at the Claydiesselfies exhibition, the works show an amazing and quirky sense of humour but also look at the use of colour, the use of different glazes, with references to various ceramic styles, but they are also very large pots that must have been difficult to fire. Virtuoso pieces.

This exhibition has smaller works that were not in the Officinet exhibition including the infamous and really rather macabre ceramic eye balls and surreal and unsettling clay noses and lips and ears on lumpy stalks that are set to face a mirror so that when you look into the mirror the lips and ears replace or overlay your own. I guess you have to be there and have done that to appreciate the joke ….. a bit like selfies really.

review of Claydiesselfies at Officinet

the exhibition is at
Ann Linneman Galleri, Kronprinsessegade 51, København
from 8 October 2020 until 14 November 2020

Claydies

 

Store Krukker / Large Pots at Designmuseum Danmark

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Designmuseum Danmark has just opened a new display in one of the large side galleries with 70 ceramic vessels from their own collection and described simply as large pots.

They vary in period and in country of origin but most are by Danish potters and artists and most are from the late 19th century onwards although there are also older ceramic vessels from Japan, Korea and China and work from Spain, France and England … all countries with strong but distinct ceramic traditions.

Some of the pieces are clearly storage jars - so utilitarian - but there are also sophisticated decorative vessels and some fine studio pottery.

The size of some of these pots is amazing and the selection of ceramics shown here provides an amazing opportunity to see how the technical skill of the potter; the form or shape of the pot; the choice of smooth, perfect and highly finished surfaces or the decision to leave a more natural finish determined by the character of the clay and the use or not of decoration, incised or in relief; the types of glaze; any use of texture or a preference for a smooth finish or high shine or matt surface and of course the final colour or colours produce works of incredibly diverse styles.

Designmuseum Danmark

 
 

NATUR KULTUR OBJEKT - works by Turi Heisselberg Pedersen and Marianne Krumbach

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Ann Linnemann Gallery

Natur Kultur Objekt at the Ann Linnemann Gallery in Kronprinsessegade shows the work of two ceramicists - Turi Heisselberg Pedersen and Marianne Krumbach - with ten pieces from each artist. 

These works could hardly be more different in style but it is interesting to see, juxtaposed here, their use of colour and texture and to see how these very sculptural pieces occupy their space.

Ann Linnemann Galleri
Kronprinsessegade 51, København
12 September - 19 October 2019

Turi Heisseiberg Pedersen

Turi Heisselberg Pedersen studied at the School of Design in Kolding. She has taught and has been an external examiner at the Royal Academy.

Works shown here are a development of a series entitled Faceted Shapes from 2015 to 2016 where the pieces had strong underlying bulbous or baluster shapes but with bold irregular facets - flat planes - over the whole form to create strongly geometric pieces. In this more recent series, there is that same use of facets like an irregular giant crystal but with more complicated composite forms that are more distinctly asymmetric and, in some pieces, there are two or three elements grouped together. 

This is stoneware with a slip finish and the surfaces are matt - rather than glazed and reflecting light - so the material itself increases and enhances shadows and makes distinct changes in tones across each face as light falls on the piece. The surfaces are boldly cut at different angles but the finish has a light texture and that too effects the colour and enhances and both simplifies but also makes more dramatic the quality of the shadows. 

This fragmentation of complex forms is reminiscent of the work of so-called Deconstructionist architecture of the late 20th century. 

There appears to be a distinct evolution from smooth, rounded and symmetrical shapes in an earlier series of ceramic vessels - The Baluster Series from 2008 to 2012 - and then a series of related but less complex forms but with fluting or deep texture called Organic Shapes from 2013. The current works are moving to a stronger emphasis on the underlying geometry of form and surface together.

Turi Heisselberg Pedersen

 

Marianne Krumbach

Marianne Krumbach studied Art History at the University of Copenhagen - graduating in 1994 - and then, through to 2001, studied ceramics and glass at the School of Design in Kolding.

The pieces shown here are, in comparison with the work of Turi Heisselberg Pedersen, organic but in two forms …. with one group taking as a starting point nature, be it rather dark and foreboding nature, in groups of stems or leaves or bud-like shapes that enclose and seem to be self contained or even exclude the viewer, and the other amazing and complex and loosely-wound shapes of strips or ribbons of clay that somehow draw you in like entering a maze or secret place. 

They have strong colours with thick glazes and again much of this, in terms of materials and colour, is about exploring light as it falls across complicated forms to create deep and dramatic shadow not only beyond the work - the shadow cast -  but shadows and dark spaces within.

Marianne Krumbach

 

Axel Salto Stentøjsmesteren / Axel Salto stoneware master

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A major exhibition of the work of Axel Salto at Øregaard Museum in Hellerup - just up the coast to the north of the city.

Axel Salto (1889 - 1961) studied painting at the Royal Academy and graduated in 1914.

In 1916 he lived in Paris where he met Picasso and Henri Matisse and on returning to Denmark he produced, edited and wrote for a short-lived but influential journal Klingen / The Blade that was published between 1917 and 1919.

He was a member of the Grønningen group of artists and one of The Four with Svend Johansen, Vilhelm Lundstrom and Karl Larsen who exhibited together between 1920 and 1929.

In the 1920s he began to design ceramics and his stoneware pieces were produced in the workshops of Carl Haller - Saxbo keramik in Frederiksberg and he also produced designs for porcelain by Bing & Grondahl with his work shown at the Paris exhibition in 1925.

The exhibition shows a full range of his ceramic works from small stoneware bowls with incised decoration or bold moulding with Japanese style glazes to large scale works with scenes from Classical mythology or stylised nature.

Paintings and strong and very confident ink and linework drawings including designs for the ceramics show clearly the style Salto developed with his training as a painter.

He also worked with the book binder August Sandgren and a selection of designs for end papers are shown in an upper gallery which have a distinct feel of the 1930s with deep colours and stylised and small repeat patterns.

 

the exhibition continues at Øregaard Museum until 23 June 2019