Oxholm HALL:Peter Max-Jakobsen (DK) “malstrøm”Aron Demetz (IT)
“Nothing is more fascinating to homo sapiens than our own constitution – our own species..”
- Peter Max-Jakobsen
“I believe that what will connect them all, the paintings, the drawings and the sculptures, is the basic human representation, and the three-dimensionality.”
- Aron Demetz
Peter Max-Jakobsen & Aron Demetz were kind enough to take time out of the schedule ahead of the exhibition and answer a few questions about the upcoming works, their consistent choice of motives and how they think they might shift in the future. Read the full interview here.
Peter Max-Jakobsen:
”malstrøm”
The works are visualizations of the risk of losing. Losing more than expected. They reflect the gaping holes which appear in people. Between people. Disruption. Meltdown. Loose ends.
In the paintings, vaguely outlined contours of the human body meet condensed pastose areas. The color pencil stands confronted by the sea of turpentine-diluted oil paint applied with thick brushes. The different artistic techniques appear side by side without merging and are only connected by the physical shape of the body.
The focal point for Peter-Max-Jakobsen is man’s attempt to outline and depict man, thereby cementing the eternal fascination with ourselves.
We are never fully discovered – we are enigmatic.
And while there are classical hints in the works by Peter Max-Jakobsen, these are never fully recognizable like the ones from the Antique or the Renaissance, but instead subtle in the way the body is posed. They show man freely – not in free fall – but always in relation to something else. The figures are juxtaposed and in their co-existence accentuate each other.
Demetz is from a long line of old Italian wood sculptors – he leaves reminiscences from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Neoclassical, which carries a balance and a calm. They are often introspective, gazing inwards, and thereby leaving us outside as strangers. Their eyes rest directly at us, letting us know they are like us, but a moment later they fade away.
So standing next to them, their metamorphosis is apparent – like the changes in mankind – the skin peeling off, the emotions, the memories and the connection intersperse underneath. There’s a feeling of observing a developing creature, ready to start a new life and to take advantage of the new possibilities.
The viewer becomes a voyeur to the human body, journeying into the mind and physicality of ourselves.
The exhibition ends the 3/4 2016
If you are unable to attend the opening night, you are always welcome to visit the gallery during our normal business hours, or to join us for our monthly Art Talk, during which TV-personality and art historian Peter Kær guides us around the gallery for an interactive discussion about the exhibition. You can follow us on Instagram,Facebook, Twitter or sign up for our newsletter.
