Sergej Jensen
Artist
- Sergej Jensen
Curators
- Johan Holten
- Luisa Heese
From March to June, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden presents an extensive solo exhibition by Sergej Jensen. With over 40 works by the artist living in New York and Berlin, the show is presenting a selection of works from 2001 to the present. It is the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany since 2013.
Jensen was born in 1973 in Maglegaard, Denmark, grew up in Frankfurt and studied at the local Städelschule under Prof. Thomas Bayrle. Since the late nineties, he is trying to omit paint and painterly evidence up to the point where he encounters the painting support. Jensen uses raw fabrics like linen, jute, nettle or silk, both as support and means of composition. He laminates these with found fabrics or money, colours them in the washing machine or mixes the colours with bleach. The remnants of his paintings are stitched together to create new works.
The motives used include early computer graphics and images of dusty modernities. Over time, the use of colour increased again. Sometimes appearing as monochrome surfaces or seemingly incidental blotches, sometimes pressed through the canvas from behind. Moreover, the very thickened or thinned acrylic paint prevents a fluent style.
In recent years figures have also found their way into Sergej Jensen’s work. Motives from classical art history appear. Seemingly assembled randomly, an almost oedipal relationship to painting runs through the different creative periods of the artist and indicates a fluid commitment to pictorial representation.