In collaboration with Lövendahl, Zakarian created and curated BLACKLANDS:
a group exhibition focusing on the color black.
Opening: Saturday 4th of November 2023, 14:00-18:00.
On display until Thursday 9 November.
BLACKLANDS is a sample of contemporary artists who work in different media and forms of expression, but where the raw, black color and dark themes are fixed parts of the repertoire.
Black is the absence of light, and in many cultures it is the symbol of the chaotic, the melancholic and the mysterious.
But black is also elegant, classic, universal – the poetic silhouette backlit by the sun, the necessary Winter time that reinforces the longing for the life-giving Spring.
Black is the absence of light, and in many cultures it is the symbol of the chaotic, the melancholic and the mysterious.
But black is also elegant, classic, universal – the poetic silhouette backlit by the sun, the necessary Winter time that reinforces the longing for the life-giving Spring.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Artist and author John Kenn Mortensen debuted the international bestseller Sticky Monsters in 2011, a book full of strange, creepy creatures in fantastic, eye-popping detail. He describes his own work as Lowbrow Art made for outsiders and his other books include The Nightmare Factory, The Wrestler, A Christmas Bestiary, and illustrating Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.
Ink paintings full of spontaneous fury: raw, fast brush strokes and a minimalist expression which is both delicate and aggressive. Her work is inspired by the darker corners of our psyche – the primal, ancient, violent forces like the hunger for power and pleasure – often manifested as feminine creatures who are seductive yet provocative, sensual, but unmistakably dangerous.
Artist and illustrator specializing in pointillism, which is art created by placing thousands, millions of individual, tiny dots on paper.
It is an extremely slow and long process which demands patience, time and precision. Garðarsson often creates atmospheric landscapes inspired by the mysterious, the dark and the natural world.
Fine, hand-made, limited edition prints rich with symbols and infused with obscure meaning. The iconic motifs are both sensual and satisfying in their cracked, raw, tactile textures and unsettling in their chaotic contrasts. Themes like rituals, religion, grief and human suffering are explored in the deepest shades of black where primitive shapes invite interpretation, encouraging us to find our own meaning.
Unatur is a project inspired by myths and iconic archetypes found in classical marble sculptures and dusty, old books. Stormy, curling compositions capture poisonous plants and dangerous creatures in intricately detailed drawings, but not as a warning
– rather, for their abundant, timeless beauty.
A reminder to look for poetry even in the darkest themes.
The first BLACKLANDS took place at Lövendahl in Copenhagen where we welcomed the dark season with shadowy contemporary art from the underground.
The experimental, ambient electro-acoustic duo Black Water White Sea (Lars Kivig & Iver Ask Overgaard) played a rare live set.
The Danish underground online magazine Selvtægt wrote about the event: Read Here
