Ryan Joseph Gallery Presents:
Understand the Silence, and There It Is
A Solo Exhibition by Morten Andersen
September 2019
Morten Andersen is a self-taught painter who began creating graffiti art to counteract the silence and emptiness of growing up in the small town of Aalborg. Now a committed studio artist, Morten paints to create energy and connect with his audience, transforming blank canvases into mystical, cosmic planes and otherworldly dimensions.
With Danish artists Ib Geertsen, Asger Jorn and Per Kirkeby as life- long inspirations, Morten has dialed in his distinctive signature over the past five years. Moving away from his earlier fingerprint style, he has taken his tight, linear abstractions and opened them up--a term he calls blowing out--allowing the patterns to stretch out of the plane of the canvas, no longer restricted by physical confines. He also introduced a spectacular color gradient element to the background of his pieces, adding an atmospheric quality, while complementing the sharp lines and crisp shapes in the foreground.
The tension between chaos and tranquility is impossible to separate as his paintings simultaneously close in on themselves and expand exponentially, mimicking the behavior of our universe and giving each shape movement and fluidity.
Dot patterns float in another dimension atop the main plane of geometric patterns and lazer layers. The use of black, which is frequently associated with the universe and the dark recesses of our subconscious minds, incorporates yet another intriguing layer to this work. Each piece beckons its audience to delve into the abyss and travel to the unknown. Self-reflection becomes inescapable as the viewer enters one wormhole only to be transported to another, completely different area of the painting through translucent shadows, imaginative shapes and energetic lines.
