Gether
Contemporary

Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen

20.0111.03.2023

We are proud to present Asger Dybvad Larsen’s third solo exhibition in the gallery titled Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen. The exhibition can be unfolded as four individual shows spread out in different parts of the gallery space; Family Portraits will be on view in the main gallery, Burned Out will be featured in the office, Falling is shown in the kitchen, and Debris Generated by Generations will take place in our newly opened showroom. Imagine: you decide to see a movie and after you press play, the words “based on real events” can be read. Is this reliable information or part of the narrative? You have now decided to see an exhibition (thank you for that), and after you start reading the press release the words “Four solo exhibitions” can be read. Is this reliable information or part of the narrative? Depending on your answer, how does it change your experience of the exhibition? “Four” exhibitions that can function as individual shows, but could just as well be intertwined or separated differently. Imagine three exhibitions: Family Portraits, Burned Out Falling and Debris Generated by Generations. Maybe just two: Family Portraits Burned Out and Falling Debris Generated by Generations. Or one, there is after all only one title in this show.

The “first” series of works Family Portraits contains large-scale inverted T-compositions. This gesture sends loving references to works by modern painters such as Aurelie Nemours, Carmen Herrera, Blinky Palermo, Kazmir Malevich, and Olga Rozanova. The form can be seen as a torso; a horizontal beam, that is completed by the abrupt vertical line. The inverted T-paintings all have the same compositions, a smaller, dark, vertical upper half and a bigger, lighter, horizontal lower part consisting of “four” individual sections. In each of the works, there is a noticeable difference between the “four” individual sections at play. The “four” sections contain representations of previous series of paintings that are either scaled up or scaled down and sewn into the new works. With this information, one could argue that you are now seeing “twenty” paintings or more, a dialectic reference to the artist's catalog raisonné. What is new and what isn’t?

Burned Out is the “second” series with paintings kept in bright red and blue, black, grey white, and orange, with a clear homage to the Danish artist Albert Mertz. In these geometric works, a cigarette-shaped object is telling a autocannibalistic story, by decreasing in numbers from painting to painting if seen from left to right. The cigarette-shaped object becomes a substitute for limbs for what one could see as a torso - an inverted T-composition. Is this an artist cannibalizing his own work or the works of art history?

In the kitchen, Asger Dybvad Larsen is displaying a new series of paint tray paintings in various sizes in the shape of a drop. In Falling Dybvad Larsen investigates the shape of his series of paint tray paintings. The striped composition of the surface has a formalistic association with American minimalist Frank Stella and his generation of painters, who believed that art shouldn’t be representational, but only refer to the painting and the process itself. The paint tray is an everyday object, that is used in the act of painting, therefore both referring to and counteracting their ideal. In this series, Asger Dybvad Larsen is interested in what happens when his paint tray paintings are shaped into a cartoon-like drop and linked to the word ‘falling’. Can the drop become a caricature substitute for paint thrown at the floor? A cartoonish depiction of an action-based way of painting. Could this way of reading the paintings give the series one more dialectic layer? One's thoughts can quickly go to Roy Lichtenstein's brushstroke paintings and their depiction of abstract expressionism.

In our showroom under the title Debris Generated by Generations, Asger Dybvad Larsen will present a new series of somber landscape paintings stitched together using part canvas and part selvage gathered over a decade. Selvage is a self-finished edge of a piece of fabric - or in this case more specific a piece of canvas - which keeps it from unraveling and fraying. The selvage is nowadays seen in the fashion industry as a sign of luxury. The more selvedge a piece of garment has, the smaller the loom has been. The smaller the loom, the less likely the garment has been mass-produced, therefore making it more luxurious. In Asger Dybvad Larsen’s artistic process, he normally cuts off the selvage of the canvas and throws it into a corner of his studio and has done so for over a decade now. In this series all the unused selvages are used to make paintings referring to the painterly tradition of landscape. In this series, Dybvad Larsen has produced a series of paintings capturing the feeling of Edward Munch’s melancholy landscape paintings. Introducing the term ‘luxury’ in this series, Dybvad Larsen points towards Asger Jorn’s luxury paintings and how these were inspired by Jackson Pollock and the notion that Jackson Pollock was inspired by Navajo sand painting. This line of information and associations combines two additional ways of reading “Debris Generated by Generations”: artists breeding artists through inspiration and appropriation, and artworks breeding artworks through leftover material. For now, ask yourself: Is this reliable information or part of a narrative?

Asger Dybvad Larsen (f. 1990) lives and works in Aarhus, Denmark. He is a graduate of Det Jyske Kunstakademi, 2017. He has exhibited (solo) at Galerie Rolando Anselmi (DE) & (IT), Geukens & de Vil Gallery (BE), Pablo’s Birthday (US), False Front (US), etc. He has participated in group exhibitions at Art Sonje Center (KR), L21 (ES), Nordic Contemporary (FR), Fabbrica Orobia (IT), Arroniz Gallery (MEX), Ernesto Esposito Collection (IT), Galeria Boavista (P), Viborg Kunsthal (DK), Kunsthal Aarhus (DK), Rod Barton (UK), Brask Collection (DK). The works of Asger Dybvad Larsen can be found in various important public collections; AROS Aarhus Art Museum (DK) and CCA Collection (ES) among others. In 2017 he received Juni Fonden’s art grand and in 2018 he was awarded a scholarship from Lepsien Art Foundation in Düsseldorf. In 2017 Roulette Rousse published the monography ‘SPOR 1’ about Asger Dybvad Larsen's practice.

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
1 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view


Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
2 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 185 x 200 cm
3 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 185 × 200 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
4 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
5 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
6 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 x 60 cm
7 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 × 60 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 33 cm
8 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 24 × 33 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 33 cm
9 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 24 × 33 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 x 40 cm
10 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 × 40 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 x 35 cm
11 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 × 35 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
12 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 x 45 cm
13 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 × 45 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 x 45 cm
14 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 40 × 45 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 50 x 65 cm
15 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 50 × 65 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
16 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
17 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 99 x 55 cm
18 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 99 × 55 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 99 x 55 cm
19 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 99 × 55 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
20 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 x 50 cm
21 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 × 50 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 x 50 cm
22 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 × 50 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
23 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 160 x 190 cm
24 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 160 × 190 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 x 50 cm
25 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 35 × 50 cm

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view
26 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen - Family Portraits / Burned Out / Falling / Debris Generated by Generations - Four solo exhibitions by Asger Dybvad Larsen - Installation view

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 105 x 140 cm
27 of 27

Asger Dybvad Larsen, Untitled, 2023, Mixed media on canvas, 105 × 140 cm