BJARNE WERNER SØRENSEN – PANORAMA

December 9, 2017 - February 4, 2018

What ideas does a work of art kindle in us? What ‘Panorama’ are we being presented with here? Is it the vision of the artist? The scope of his oeuvre? Details of a Faroese landscape or extracts of the town’s vortex? We just do not know, but we can certainly make a guess!

The abstract works of the Danish-Faroese artist, Bjarne Werner Sørensen quiver with restless energy. There is something organic about them and often a lightness and musicality that stimulate the viewer’s eye, prompting our desire to go on a journey through the works.

Bjarne Werner Sørensen works within several different artistic genres: from oil painting and lithography to PVC stamping and photography. What all the works have in common is rhythm, repetition and variations of shapes, transformations and movements. The result is a dynamic interaction between line, shape and surface. Most recently, however, it is oil painting that has particularly attracted him: a fascination with, and a fundamental delight in pigment, canvas and brush strokes.

One of the recurring traits is how he often lets chance play its role on a work’s surface. “You develop your own instruments and tools as an artist”, as BWS says. As an extension of this, he ‘trips himself up’ or disciplines himself and the artistic process in various ways. For example, in the new works, this is evident in his strict application of layers. One work may only consist of two layers of paint, another of three layers and so forth. That invests the works with a huge variety of expression, but the works also become examples of the creative process, which a work and an artist go through. The more layers of paint there are, the more cracks and depth there are in a work.

The exhibition, Panorama presents a number of brand new oil paintings and works in laser-cut PVC. They are displayed along with earlier graphic works, photos and objects, which are linked in various ways to the Faroe Islands and the artist’s Faroese roots.

The Faroe Islands and Bjarne Werner Sørensen

Bjarne Werner Sørensen (b. 1960) lives and works in Copenhagen, but he has the Faroe Islands in his blood from his mother’s side. Although he resides in Denmark, for many years he has played an active role in Faroese artistic life: for example, in the graphic workshop, Steinprent as an organiser and curator of a number of exhibitions and workshops. He is also a member of the exhibition group, Heystframsýningin.

The exhibition is supported by Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fond and the Danish Arts Foundation.