INDOORS

JANUARY 25 - APRIL 13, 2020
CLAUS EGEMOSE & MICHAEL MØRK

Claus Egemose and Michael Mørk are behind Allan Gabi. Allan Gabi is an abstract persona, a working partnership and a method. It is the autonomous figure, which Egemose and Mørk have chosen to represent their artistic duo. Allan Gabi allows the two artists to put aside their own interests for a while and instead focus on a common language, which channels through a third person, a neutral no man’s land.

In parallel with Allan Gabi, Egemose and Mørk have their creation in their own names. In Kunsthal NORD’s exhibition INDOORS, Egemose and Mørk present an installation by Allan Gabi, which as a space in between is shown parallel to the two artists own artworks. Allan Gabi’s artwork Indoors is placed as a connection or transition between the two artists separate exhibitions.

Indoors acts as an intervening foreign element that amplifies surrounding expressions. The installation examines its surroundings; it changes depending on the light and creates shadows and shades that as an endless process are constantly changing. The result is an instant impression that propagates in the body as you enter the installation, and the impression the artwork creates is never the same the next time it is experienced. The installation has previously been exhibited in other contexts and now Kunsthal NORD’s industrial and intricate architecture forms the framework for the artwork, which for the first time is shown indoors in an edited version.

When Allan Gabi’s artwork can be understood as a space inserted between Egemose and Mørk it is because it physically is placed in the transition from one artists exhibition to another. Egemose has occupied the art center’s first exhibition room. Here the spatial explorations start with various material and colors that creates both a fragmented and unifying expression. Egemose’s different artworks do not relate to one another in their forms, but rather by virtue of the principles they operate. The focus here is on the surface and texture. Artworks in textile, plexiglass, paper and construction plates are in a zigzagging dialogue with each other about the means of the colors and its effect on the materials. A color can get the eyes to wander, and a material can with its qualities, offer new perspectives.

Like Egemose, Mørk adds his own perspective on spatial explorations, which are concretized in various installations and paintings. Scales and their shifts appear in the exhibition’s different artworks. Mørk is interested in opening up structures, be it in installations built by modules or in the painting, where the creative process immediately is exposed, visible and transparent. A sensual aspect characterizes Mørk’s works. There is no doubt that everything is created by hand, and the expression that arises becomes a contrast to the simple forms from which the works are created.

Allan Gabi, Claus Egemose and Michael Mørk give three different suggestions on how spaces are challenged and unfolded. How space characterizes an artwork, and how artwork characterizes a space. The viewer has in this a key role; the artwork and space only gets a meaning when it is sensed, activated and experienced. The viewer is therefore included in all aspects of the exhibition INDOORS. It is possible that the exhibition title can cover three different exhibitions; Allan Gabi, Claus Egemose and Michael Mørk. But INDOORS can also be understood as three different terms; three different statements on the same theme or three different sides of the same case.

Claus Egemos (1956 DK). Is co-founder of the art magazine PIST PROTTA and has exhibited with the other editors numerous times. He has an on-going project with visual artist Jesper Fabricius. Egemose was part of Gallery KONGO in the 1080s. He has participated in various museum exhibitions in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Iceland alongside his own decorations and exhibitions he has had the artist duo Allan Gabi with Michael Mørk.

Michael Mørk (1959 DK) autodidact. Mørk has had solo exhibitions at Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Randers Kunstmuseum, Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst and resently Møstings Hus. Mørk was a member of the North Udstillingssted. He was the initiator and curator (with Ruth Campau) of Paintbox, Paintbox exstensions and Box 2.0. Mørk is one half of the artist duo Allan Gabi and a member of the artist association Grønningen.

The exhibition is supported by Statens Kunstfond, Knud Højgaards Fond, Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond, Beckett-Fonden, and Statens Værksteder For Kunst.

For more information and interviews:
E: info@kunsthalnord.dk
T: 9982 4125