SOPHIE KITCHING

GROUP SHOW “LANDSCAPE” | COPENHAGEN
Opening March 15, 2024

Landscape
Text by Katrine Stenum Poulsen, Museum curator, Trapholt.

With: Mads Juel, Maria Zahle, Christine Clemmesen, Ragnhild May, Sophie Kitching, Liva Jo Juul Streich, Liv Ertzeid, Casper Aguila, Frederik Næblerød, Martine Myrup, Helen Teede, Pauline Fransson, Ida Lunden, Maximilian Brown

Alice Folker Gallery
Esplanaden 14, st. th.
DK-1263 København K.

The emotional landscape

“The exhibition Landscape at gallery Alice Folker presents a number of contemporary artists who each convey the landscape through a wide range of media such as painting, photography, ceramics and collage. Together, the works represent a diverse polyphony, even though a common thread can be felt. It is this common thread that I will present in the following text as my take on why the landscape seems to have re-emerged as a central artistic theme.

Contemporary art today is characterized by artists who have something at heart. This is expressed in works where we as viewers feel the intimate relationship between artist, material, form and message. In particular, there are two present questions that many art historical researchers are investigating in these years; partly how the role of the artist is changing in the 21st century, partly how works of contemporary art are experienced by the audience as being particularly emotional or affective. It is in the latter category that my own research most often takes place. The English researcher Dr. In her article "Art at the edge of emotion: Living in a state of anxiety" from 2017, Caterina Albano aptly writes about the role of the contemporary artist: "Artists decode and interrogate the dominant cultural climate. Their artworks act as an irritant to established interpretations and the affects that dominate them.”

In the context of the landscape, the role of challenger of current norms and interpretations, or stone in the shoe of cultural ideas, can very well be expressed as the works presented in the exhibition here. Here, the landscape is not presented as a reproduction, glorification or documentary act. Rather, it is a thought or an idea about a landscape, like something internal – a feeling that is expressed in the

works. The artists show themselves, as John Berger wrote so elegantly, not as 'creators' but as 'receivers' who are able to shape what they receive.

The year 2024 is written with a k: climate, war and crisis. Landscapes are changing rapidly. The political landscape, the geographical landscape, the technological landscape, the inner landscape and the landscape that presents itself outside our door, where insects die and rising bodies of water flood our basements.

The emotional landscape is characterized by its strange presence and the insistence on our interaction with it. It amazes, surprises and excites. It invites us to 'look slowly' in the spirit of Michael Findlay, or rediscover the slow hermeneutic reading of art that Nietzsche, Heidegger and Wittgenstein all advocated. I would encourage everyone who visits the exhibition to give themselves time and permission to consider the works that instinctively evoke a reaction. This is where the potential for the emotional art experience lies, and through this we as the viewer can unlock new realizations within ourselves. Realizations that are sensory and emotional as well as cognitive. The exhibition 'Landscape' invites us to mirror our inner landscape in a small ant, a fragile balance or staring eyes.

If the landscape is a thought, an idea about something, it can arise as a small inner seed with the potential to grow, sprout, take root and spread. Not only with the artist, but especially with the viewer as well – if we allow it.”

—Katrine Stenum Poulsen, Museum curator, Trapholt.

ART FAIR | ART HERNING 2024
26-28 January 2024

ALICE FOLKER GALLERY
MCH Herning Kongrescenter
Østergade 37, 7400 Herning
Denmark

With: Karim Boumjimar, Anna Stahn, Asger Harbou Gjerdevik, Frederik Næblerød, Maria Zahle, Marie Rud Rosenzweig, Sophie Kitching

ART FAIR | LONDON ART FAIR 2024
16-21 January 2024

THE FINCH PROJECT
Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street, London
United Kingdom N1 0QH

With: Jake Aikman, Heather Chontos, Gwen Hardie, Sophie Kitching, Nick McPhail, Piet Raemdonck, Michael Taylor

PRESS | CRASH MAGAZINE
JANUARY 2024

CRASH MAGAZINE #101
THE ART ISSUE | WOMEN ONLY

Biannual
Editor in chief and creative director: Armelle Leturcq

“SERPENTI IN ART BY SOPHIE KITCHING”
Text: Roisin Breen
Photographer: Chiara Bruschini
Set Designer: Chléo Perrin
Stylist: Roisin Breen
Handbags: BVLGARI x Sophie Kitching