NYAB Event - Troels Carlsen “The Ten Thousand Things”

Troels Carlsen “The Ten Thousand Things”

Y Gallery (319 Grand St.)

This event has ended.

Y Gallery presents The Ten Thousand Things, the first solo exhibition and participation of Danish artist, Troels Carlsen, with the gallery.

Troels Carlsen’s visual language is diverse and poetic. Often incorporating interactions with vintage anatomical charts, maps and antique book pages, his work contains continuous visual and conceptual shifts between the biologically charted and the human consciousness. Rather than fostering contradiction, these works beg a curious question, which simultaneously challenges the notion of a given and complete truth whilst hinting that reality could be hiding somewhere behind the apparent foreground. Art historical movements, such as romanticism and symbolism, are paramount inspirational references within Carlsen’s work, juxtaposing the primacy of man with a scientific rationalization of nature.

In a visual setting of human anatomy and folklore illustrations he paints new scenarios atop the former motifs. These scenarios interact playfully with the imagery of the prints, creating puzzling combinations between the past and the present, the old and the new. The Eyes series depicts selections of the 20th century’s most influential artworks as though teleported into scenes of centuries before. The series Not To Change Will Cost More is comprised of 10 antique lithographs of stern looking statesmen disfigured by the insertion of wooden, geometric structures within their faces, thereby bending the conservative authoritarian value of such portraits. A wall-mounted, bronze sculptural work presents a human skeleton standing on the edge a diving board, he holds his head between his hands, ready to drop it in to the unknown, perhaps ready pursue a lighter way of life without the weight of our human thoughts.

With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek Troels Carlsen breathes idealism into old pictures and forgotten beings while distorting our social, biological and historical heritage. The almost ritual circumcisions of the works’ original motifs allow one cycle of life to move to a new one. Yet the scar remains, reminding us of the past. Is the moment fleeting or part of a greater, ongoing progress?

Troels Carlsen (B. 1973, Denmark) has recently been shortlisted for the Carnegie Art Award 2014. In 2013, his works were part of exhibitions at the Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA, The Hole, New York, USA, Invisible Exports, New York, USA, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco and Davidson Contemporary, New York, USA. In 2013 Carlsen also held his fifth solo exhibition with V1 Gallery in Denmark, and an article documenting the making of those works was published in Juxtapoz magazine. Other exhibitions include solo shows in Valencia, Spain and Berlin, Germany, as well as participation in exhibitions at the AROS Museum and Kunsthallen Nicolaj both in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work is internationally collected and a part of numerous private and permanent collections.

[Image: Not to Change Will Cost More # 1. 2013, Acrylic on antique litography, 12.2 x 8.7 inches]