Pressemeddelelse:
"2011 er hurtig, maleriet er langsomt. Jeg er interesseret i historien, men jeg arbejder i en post-historisk periode. Mine malerier omhandler den tid jeg lever i. Ved færdiggørelsen af en samling malerier er deres temaer allerede historie. Jeg er en amerikaner der lever i slutningen af den amerikanske æra. Der sker hele tiden noget nyt, som jeg indsamler viden om i radioen, på tv, på internettet, på Twitter. Medierne er min Muse og jeg maler i lyset fra min computer. Jeg maler billeder som omhandler de ting der interesserer mig. Jeg ville ønske jeg havde tid til at male flere ting, men kunsten er langsom og verden er hurtig."
- Tom Sanford 2011
I hans første solo-udstilling hos Gallery Poulsen fortsætter Tom Sanford sit arbejde med at afspejle kunstnerens ambivalente fascination af en kultur drevet af en 24-timers nyheds cyklus. Sultne efter skandaler og besatte af berømmelse. Sanfords malerier benytter en række forskellige genrer til at præsentere skurke og ofre, samt øjeblikkets tragedier og triumfer. Historien om det kaprede Mærsk Alabama og USS Bainbridge’s redning af Kaptajn Richard Phillips, præsenteres som et historisk maleri med reference til Géricaults maleri ’Raft of the Medusa’.
Britisk rocks nyligt afdøde bad-girl, Amy Winehouse, er malet som et ikon med henblik på at blive æret af hendes fans og den ulækre udnyttelse af anti-heltene Charlie Sheen og Silvio Berlusconi er malet i skrigende, men smukke tableauer der fremstår som lige dele renæssance maleri og lav-pande politiske tegneserier. Sanfords arbejde er et bastard-mix af samme slags som den kultur det stammer fra.
I de fire Mao malerier skifter Sanford genre til det konceptuelle og drager fordel af globaliseringen i hans produktion ved at outsource en stor del af arbejdet til Kina for derefter at transformere værkerne om til ’originale’ Sanford værker i Amerika. Kunstneren har bestilt Kinesiske malere til at male kopier af det berømte stats portræt af Mao Zedong, det samme Mao portræt som Warhol tilbage i 1973 baserede sine silketryks malerier på. Malerierne bliver derefter sendt til Sanfords atelier i New York, hvor han ændrer billederne til typiske arketyper fra hans vestlige kulturelle miljø. Gennem denne konceptuelle kunst produktion og med sammenblandingen af østlig og vestlig kulturers ikoner kommenterer Sanford på den skiftende dynamik i den globale, kulturelle og økonomiske magt i slutningen af det amerikanske århundredes æra.
Tom Sanford arbejder fra sit studio i New York City og har udstillet over hele verden med soloudstillinger på bl.a. Leo Koenig, Inc. i New York og Galleri Faurschou i København. Hans arbejde har været udstillet på Cincinnati Center for Moderne Kunst, Chelsea Museum i New York City og Palazzo delle Arti i Napoli, Italien. I øjeblikket forbereder han en November udstilling til Galleri Zidoun i Luxembourg.
Press release:
"2011 is fast, painting is slow. I am interested in history, but I work in a post-historical period. I make paintings about the time I live in. By the time I finish the paintings, their subjects are history. I am an American, living at the end of the American Century. Things are happening all the time. I learn about these things on the radio, on television, on the internet, on Twitter. The media is my muse, I paint by the light of my computer. I make paintings about the things that interest me. I wish I had time to paint more things, but art is slow and the world is fast." - Tom Sanford 2011
For his first solo exhibition at Gallery Poulsen, Tom Sanford's work continues to reflect the artist's ambivalent fascination with a culture that is driven by the 24-hour news cycle, hungry for scandal and obsessed with celebrity. Sanford's paintings use a variety of genres to present the villains and victims, the tragedies and triumphs of the moment. The story of the hijacked Mersk Alabama and the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips by the USS Bainbridge are presented as a history painting akin to Géricault's Raft of the Medusa. The recently deceased British rock bad girl, Amy Winehouse, is painted as an icon to be venerated by her fans. The seamy exploits of anti-heros Charlie Sheen and Silvio Berlusconi are painted in a garish, yet beautiful tableaux; these paintings are part renaissance painting, part low brow political cartoon. Sanford's work is hybridized and bastardized like the culture it emerges from.
In the four Custom Mao paintings, Sanford shifts genres to the conceptual. Sanford takes advantage of globalization in his production by outsourcing a large part of the labor to China, and then adding the intellectual property himself in America. The artist has commissioned Chinese painters to paint copies of the famous state portrait of Mao Zedong, on which Warhol based his 1973 silk screen paintings of Mao. The paintings are then shipped to Sanford's New York studio, where he "customizes" them by altering the paintings to become cultural archetypes from his western cultural milieu. Through this conceptually driven means of art production, as well as the juxtaposition of eastern and western cultural iconography, the artist comments on the shifting dynamics of global cultural and economic power at the end of the American century.
Tom Sanford works in New York City and has exhibited all over the world, including solo exhibitions at Leo Koenig, Inc. in New York and Galleri Faurschou in Copenhagen. His work has been exhibited at the Cincinnati Center for Contemporary Art, the Chelsea Museum in New York
City and the Palazzo delle Arti in Naples, Italy. He is currently preparing for an exhibition in November at Gallery Zidoun in Luxembourg.
Information
"The Decline Of Western Civilization (Part III)"
Tom Sanford (US), solo
Vernissage September 2nd from 5 - 8 pm
The show runs until October 1st, 2011
Gallery Poulsen Contemporary Fine Arts
Flæsketorvet 24, Den hvide Kødby
1711 København V.
Tlf.+45 4015 5588
www.gallerypoulsen.com
[email protected]
Opening hours: Tuesday thru Friday 12 -17.30, Saturday 11 - 15 or by apointment
Pressebilleder.
