V1 Gallery presents
A New Day
A solo exhibition by HuskMitNavn
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY OCTOBER 4. 2024. TIME: 16.00 - 21.00
EXHIBITION PERIOD: OCTOBER 4. – NOVEMBER 9. 2024.
In A New Day HuskMitNavn reflects on the poetry in the mundane. In a curious, often humorous, and empathetic manner, HuskMitNavn engages everyday scenes, contemporary life and humankind. A young girl is captivated by the sunlight in the midst of the busy family morning routine of breakfast; 50/50 chance of brushed teeth, packed lunch, clean up, clothes on, out the door. Transfixed while putting on her shoes, seated on the kitchen floor, in awe over the magic and spectacular ordinary sunrise. Her father behind her, still in underwear and t-shirt, doing the dishes half awake, does not notice this enchanting moment. On the fridge, above the girl, the warm sunlight illuminate’s receipts, a letter, a rendering of Picasso peace dove, a drawing of Miyazaki’s Totoro and a post card of the American artist Edward Hopper’s painting Morning Sun. As your gaze meets Hopper on the fridge, you realize that the feeling of familiarity with the situation does not only stem from the recognizable in the morning scene and the apartments interior, but also from the compositional and painterly homage that HuskMitNavn has created to Hopper’s Morning Sun in his painting A New Day, 2024, (acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm). In his radiant painting HuskMitNavn manages to merge the very everyday contemporary with art history, gently reminding us, that many works of art that today are considered masterpieces, depict the ordinary, the basics of the human condition. Art works that connects us beyond time and geographical boarders. The human experience is at the heart of the exhibition which encompass 19 paintings in various sizes and 20 works in and on paper, in a site-specific installation created by HuskMitNavn for the new 250m2 gallery space.
In Clean View, 2024 (acrylic on canvas 160 x135 cm) a washing machine cycle becomes a Van Gogh moment of zen for a boy. A newlywed couple share a late-night moonlit pizza and a quiet moment of introspection in The First Night, 2024 (180x180 cm). In Your Own Rhythm, 2024 (acrylic on canvas 150x120 cm) a woman is happily out of synch in her dance class, reminding us that sometimes it is more satisfying to be dancing on your own, you can almost hear Robyn singing, even in the company of others. HuskMitNavn creates intimate scenes that highlights fragile moments where we are alone together, lost in a feeling or just being.
Over the past 20 years, HuskMitNavn has developed a distinct and celebrated visual vocabulary. In A New Day, he continues this progression, refining his painterly language with elegant homages to Vincent Van Gogh, Johannes Vermeer, Anna Ancher and Edward Hopper. Throughout his career HuskMitNavn has insisted on portraying our daily lives and routines with genuine curiosity. Painting and drawing the semi annoying now; mobile phones, morning commutes, generic office interiors, washing machines! buses, rainy days, bicycle helmets, baby strollers and leaf blowers. Objects and scenes that are often left out in our self-portraits whether that be in fine art or on social media. In his work HuskMitNavn conducts a contemporary anthropology.
There is a joyful defiance in A New Day, a sort of call to arms to appreciate and celebrate our daily lives. If you look, you will see.
HuskMitNavn (b.1975) lives and works in Copenhagen. He is a multidisciplinary artist creating large-scale installations, extensive works in public, sculpture, works on canvas and paper and beyond, such as various print types, artist multiples and books. HuskMitNavn (RememberMyName) has chosen to remain anonymous throughout his career, preferring the spotlight on his works rather than his person. Nevertheless, he has become one of the most recognized and celebrated contemporary Danish artists with more than 200,000 followers around the globe on Instagram. He actively uses the media to promote and instigate creativity. His artist books have been published around the world and his distinct socially conscious practice resonates with a wide audience beyond Danish shores. Recent exhibitions and public commissions include The Big Picture, Savina Museum, Seoul, Korea (2024 – until October 24.th), Beyond the Streets, Southhampton Arts Center, Southhampton, USA, 2024, Under the Same Sky, Beyond the Streets Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2023, Beyond the Streets at Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2023, The Missing Pieces, Eighteen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022.
Walk, 2021, Sophienholm Kunsthal, Denmark; Beyond the Streets, 2021, USA; Museum of Copenhagen, 2020, Denmark; Interior, 2020, Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark; Beyond the Streets, 2019, New York, USA; Travelers, 2019, Copenhagen Airport, Denmark; Draw, 2019, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark; BIG, 2019, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Visitors, 2017, Glyptoteket, Copenhagen, Denmark. A large-scale exhibition dedicated to HuskMitNavn’s print practice will open at The Kastrupgaard Collection, Kastrup, Denmark inFebruary 2025. A New Day is HuskMitNavn’s twelfth solo exhibition with V1 Gallery / Eighteen since his first exhibition in 2003.