Friday August 11, Hans Alf Gallery invites everyone to join the opening of Magnus Fisker’s new exhibition “The Void”.
In his newest series of paintings, Magnus Fisker explores the concept of death and the end of society. The young painter, who is currently finishing his Master’s at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, has a deep and profound interest in nature and how we as human beings treat or indeed mistreat it. According to Fisker, humanity is standing on the edge of the void. Climate change and mass extinction threaten to nullify life as we know it. We live in a time of greed and rampant consumption. To the artist – and to the planet as an autonomous whole – paradise must now be a state of post-apocalyptic balance; an ecological equilibrium that excludes humans from the equation altogether, a perfect state of natural circularity and complex, organic codependency. A world without us.
“The Void” is a thought experiment that envisions a place beyond civilization, a sanguine state of bliss and unwavering light, an alternate paradise. As such, the paintings in the exhibition are sequential fantasies about non-existence, musings on a singularity void of people. What distinguishes Fisker’s imagery from the doomsday visions of others before him, is the unadulterated joy and content that emanates from his paintings. This is not a gloomy tale of Armageddon, but a jubilant vision of light and eternal harmony. We’re just not part of it.
To Magnus Fisker, the act of painting unfolds as an unceasing process of being and becoming; each work serving as a sentence within an ever-evolving narrative. As such, Fisker's tale revolves around the essence of existence, and delves into the profound interconnectedness of all things; what it means to be a part of an all-encompassing circuit. In every breath we take, life unfolds.
“Painting is putting the brush to the canvas and then dragging it. The stroke is born, it evolves, and eventually it fades. In between, life exists. It comes with different degrees of speed, different degrees of pleasure.”
- Magnus Fisker, 2023
"The Void" opens August 11 and will be on view through September 2.
