Henrik Godsk: Portraits and Passages

15 October - 1 November 2020

My second show in Sydney will essentially be about the relation between figuration and abstraction. I will show portraits of imaginary people that might come from the future, but undoubtedly also lived in the past as well as a series of abstract works that I refer to as passages. The portraits and the abstract works can both be described as pieces consisting of geometrical elements painted on a surface. Intetestingly, the former are generally more flat and less spatial than the latter. In that way, the abstract works almost appear more illusionistic than the figurative works - at least from a distance. Up close both type of works appear as painterly marks and elements on a surface - as abstractions.

 

The people I paint are imaginary constructions and so are the places - the passages. I look upon them as places that are both flat and spatial at the same time. I do not know where they lead to, the passages? Maybe to the future? Undoubtedly to the past. Both types of works are about painting and the history of painting and the relatedness between figuration and abstraction. Hopefully, also about what it means to be human.