“People have always described my photography as taking a harsh image and making it beautiful. I always liked images that make you take a pause and try to figure them out.”

-Norman Reedus

We met Norman Reedus at Art Basel Miami 2019 at a New York Academy of Art dinner party after being brought together by mutual acquaintances. Norman was in Miami for the opening of his solo exhibition, and he invited us to the block party the following day. In best Gallery Poulsen fashion we didn’t waste the time and arranged a Norman Reedus solo exhibition in Copenhagen right then and there. Therefore, it is with great pleasure we now invite you to “Live the Life You Love” – A Solo Exhibition by Norman Reedus, opening December 29.

Norman is never without his camera. Like his life on set and in the real world, Reedus’ images vacillate between the real and surreal. Certain portraits remain vivid and clear, while others are washed in intrigue: grainy, hazy and obscured. What unites all these faces are the eyes that see them: Norman’s. From those eyes come a piercing intimacy, both precious and rare.

Reedus has always been an artist in the sense that there was never much of a boundary between his lifestyle and his personal aesthetic. You can see examples of Reedus’ eye for the gritty, edgy, beautifully macabre side of life in “Live the Life You Love”.

While Norman has shot plenty of unsettling photos (including a series inside a maximum-security prison in Russia) not all of Reedus’ images are dark. Some of them have a warmth or quiet wit to them, and some will even evoke a smile. 

“Pee Wee” is a heart-warming photograph which shows two Pee Wee dolls holding up a snapshot of Reedus’ partner, the actress Diane Kruger. “I’ve become friends with Paul Reubens and the more I know him the more I like him,” Reedus says. “So I started collecting these Pee Wee Herman dolls. That image wasn’t set up for the picture, it’s an actual spot in my house.”

The photograph “Live the Life You Love” is a close-up of a man’s hands with those words tattooed across his knuckles, taken when Reedus was on a press junket in Asia. “I ended up going out one night and I met this guy and I just liked his whole aesthetic,” Reedus says. “I like him because he looked so out of the box, but he was 100% living the life he wanted to live. You could tell by his attitude and his style. Sometimes a photograph will be a memory for me. Sometimes, I will do a portrait of someone, after I get to know them. Because you can see someone and know they look cool but once you realize why they look cool, it changes the photograph.”

“I always have my eyes open. This exhibition: “Live the Life You Love” is like stepping in my own shoes, seen through my own eyes with my sense of humor.“

-Norman Reedus

Installation video

Article in Berlingske

Live the Life You Love – A Solo Exhibition by Norman Reedus
29.12.2021 - 05.02.2022

The exhibition is curated by Norman Reedus, Laurie Dolphin, and Morten Poulsen and includes more than thirty photographs

Opening reception December 29, 12 – 5:30 PM

Gallery Poulsen always follow the national Covid-19 guidelines

Contact the gallery at [email protected] or tel. + 45 33 33 93 96 for further info