Danish painter Anders Brinch’s new show, Cakes and Caviar, consists of a series of new works that continues the artist’s enduring exploration of figurative, narrative-driven painting. Brinch’s own painterly oeuvre is complex and multi-facetted in its own right, and he readily channels his own inner library of previous works in his new exhibition. The motives of the past sneak up on him and tab him on the shoulder, while he’s painting.
But in addition to revisiting his own works, art history in general is mobilized in the talented painter’s recent production, as he – in his own words – samples left and right. The references to expressionism, surrealism and symbolism are clear, but also unconventional genres like cartoons and mainstream movies are thrown into the mix, making “Cakes and Caviar” a hyper-eclectic, idiosyncratic hybrid between genres and traditions.
Technically, Anders Brinch is an oil painter to the bone. He moves seamlessly between broad, expressive strokes, and minute, thoughtful details, and his colour scheme is both lush and dusty at the same time. Brinch never shies away from using his own human experience in his art – the joys of everyday life, sorrow, adversity, and depravity – and thus “Cakes and Caviar” is a sort of visual diary from a period full of both good and bad days, in which humorous and painful elements are fused to create a generous and dreamy parallel universe.
In addition to his paintings, Anders Brinch also exhibits a series of works on paper that serves as both a script for the show, and as artworks in their own right. One of the drawings depicts a mountain with an enormous sign similar to the iconic Hollywood Sign. In Brinch’s version, however, “Hollywood” is replaced by the words “Art is Medicine” – a statement that is essential to his approach to art: To him, art is a necessity, it has a healing capacity – for the artist, but also for the recipient. And potentially for society as a whole.
