On November 25, Laura Bartlett Gallery will open the Martin Skauen exhibition The Blind Spot. This is Skauen’s second solo show at the gallery and the exhibition runs until January 21.
Martin Skauen is interested in the suspension of reason and the seeking of sense and meaning within the irrational. Skauen’s work can be read in terms of the Surrealist strategy of rupture and discord; Skauen’s subjects are located directly between ordinary experience and pure chaotic contingency.
The exhibition illustrates the artist’s use of pencil drawing and video work and their various manifestations, and is therefore organized around these two main areas. Skauen often films fragments of his own large-scale drawings, for example Kukanka (2009), or The Polar Bear Split (2006) composing his own musical accompaniment to his video work. Using a similar method, in the new video work on view in the exhibition, Skauen instead chooses to employ permanently accessible images taken from web search and the media.
The exhibition will also present a selected compilation of drawings and collages, ranging from poetical loose sketches to traditionally resolved figurative drawings.
Martin Skauen was born in Fredrikstad, Norway in 1976. He studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and last year completed a residency at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Skauen has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Athens Biennial, Athens, Kunstverein Frankfurt, Gotesborg Kunsthall in Sweden and Unge Kunsternus Hus, Oslo. Recent solo exhibitions include MGM Galeri, Oslo and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. In June 2012, Skauen will present a solo project titled Slideshow Johnny, at Art Statements, Art Basel.
Martin Skauen
The Blind Spot
Laura Bartlett Gallery
November 25 – January 21
10 Northington Street
London WC1N 2JG
United Kingdom
Opening hours Wednesday – Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm