V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
Mute Appeal
A solo exhibition by Troels Carlsen
cDisplacement and vertigo are reoccurring themes in Mute Appeal. The works are both familiar and strange. Reality becomes slippery and you find yourself adrift between two planes, like the subjects in Carlsen’s new works. 10 antique lithographs of stern looking gentlemen have all been modified seamlessly, de-constructed, the men now have wooden structures morphing with their heads. Two large vintage anatomy charts sprout into a man running through murky waters and a pregnant woman in a chair. Both characters are faceless, speechless but engage us in an otherworldly manner.
A series of round pieces work as portholes to a different reality. A world close to ours, or our world shaken like a snow globe and left to settle. Displaced briefly and a new reality emerges.
Juxtapositions of violence and serenity, the mundane and the magical, pop and academia, humor and tragedy, past and future fill this group of works.
The new works feel refreshingly free of direct intention and narration. They appeal to contemplation and engagement. Troels Carlsen’s visual language is very diverse. Many of his works are created on, and in interaction with, vintage anatomical charts, maps and antique book pages. Carlsen’s style is untimely figurative, sublimely precise and intimately surreal. Carlsen’s subject matter and approach shares paths with the work of the artist and filmmaker David Lynch and the writer Daniel Z. Danilevski.
Troels Carlsen (Born 1973, Denmark) has recently been shortlisted for the Carnegie Art Award 2014. In 2013 he has taken part in exhibitions at Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA, The Hole, New York, USA, Invisible Exports, New York, USA, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco and Davidson Contemporary, New York, USA. His work has been praised and collected around the world. An article documenting the making of the exhibition will be published in Juxtapoz magazine in July. Mute Appeal is Troels Carlsen’s fifth solo exhibition with V1 Gallery.
