Thomas Øvlisen

Gravité Perdue

V1 Gallery is pleased to present

Gravité Perdue
A solo exhibition by Thomas Øvlisen
October 2 – November 14, 2026

Gravité Perdue is an exhibition about the ocean. The large, immersive paintings, executed in oil on repurposed sailcloth, are not literal depictions of the sea, but rather evoke the feeling of the ocean: the push and pull, the loss of gravity, being submerged or floating, drifting, forces beyond human control, a unique ecosystem, appearing and disappearing, and an endless shifting of bluish hues. These works are the ocean: the waves, the sensation of weightlessness. I love floating with massive waves, letting go and letting the ocean taking you wherever it wants.

Jacques Cousteau handed me – and to a few million other children – the undersea world, through a television set, and I spent hours down there in my imagination. Tub, pool, ocean or lake: you go under, and arrive somewhere with different rules. Turned over by a big wave and taken along for the ride, absolute relaxation stops being a mood and becomes a technique. Fighting for the surface is the only way to lose. You have to let go and simply float in the experience of lost gravity.

Two French phrases have been circling the studio. Sentiment océanique: the feeling of losing your edges and dissolving into something much larger, and not minding it at all — loving it, actually. And l'appel du vide, the call of the void: that flicker on a cliff edge or high balcony that quietly points out you could simply step off. One pulls you outward. The other pulls you down.

The paintings are made from thinly diluted washes of oil paint on found sailcloth, cloth that spent a working life holding wind and has since retired from it. I cut the sails into squares, though a corner is often missing — a sail is not a square and I would rather lose the corner than lose the sail. I let the washes run. Gravity makes most of the decisions. Layer after layer, I keep building the experience of a wave, the feeling of the ocean: this planets all-encompassing, overwhelming unique, and extraordinarily thin outer layer.

That is what I am after here. Not a picture of water. The oil paint becoming water, becoming the ocean.

Text by Thomas Øvlisen

Thomas Øvlisen (b. 1974) lives and works in Copenhagen. He holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been presented in institutional solo exhibitions at Kongegården Kunsthal, Korsør (2023); Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2021). Selected institutional group exhibitions include HEART, Herning (2025); Sophienholm, Lyngby (2025); Kunsthal Nikolaj, Copenhagen (2014); Gammel Holtegård, Holte (2014); Viborg Kunsthal (2014); and Heerup Museum, Rødovre (2014).

Gravité Perdue is Thomas Øvlisen’s eight solo exhibition with the gallery.