On Friday, 12th of March 2010 from 6 to 9 p.m., Galerie Michael Janssen will be presenting a selection of Emil Holmer’s recent paintings. Dead Letters is the first solo exhibition of the Swedish artist at the gallery. Born in Karlstad in 1975, Holmer studied at the Academy of Arts in Umeå and at the U.D.K. in Berlin, where he was a guest student in the class of Tony Cragg. In recent years, Holmer had several solo exhibitions in Europe, Australia and South Africa.
Emil Holmer’s paintings are cathartic explosions; axes, spears, wood constructions, body parts as well as abstract geometric forms and amorphous shapes seem to be exploding like fireworks on the canvas or are just heaped up like debris after an apocalyptic video game war. Holmer’s works are reminiscent of Graffiti and the avant-garde movement COBRA, whose primary focus consisted of semi-abstract paintings with brilliant color, violent brushwork and distorted human figures.
The large format paintings are violent image symphonies, in which the density inherent in every depicted scene creates a blur, straining the viewer’s eyes. Drawing on such areas as psychopathology, fear, power, sexuality and the body, Emil Holmer is strongly influenced by pop culture, midway between the horror film and the comic strip.
Since the Chaos and Fractal Theory, “chaos” doesn’t simply mean ‘anarchy’ but ‘a higher order’: out of confusion and complexity life emerges as a functioning organism. Chaos displays an innate tendency to form into patterns and structures and it fosters and commands order despite of all forces that act against it. Self-organization is the result of re-invention and creative adaptation due to the introduction of perturbed equilibrium. Holmer’s paintings are one example of an organization, which exists in a constant state of perturbation, with irregularities, even randomness in the dynamics of systems considered as ‘ordered’ by the traditional views.
Emil Holmer
2003 Gueststudent at U.D.K, Class Tony Cragg, Berlin, DE 2002 Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Arts in Umeå, Sweden, SE 1996-97 Nordiska Konstskolan “Nordic School of Art”, Karleby, Kokkolla, FI
Solo Exhibitions
2010 Dead Letters. Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, GER 2009 Galleri S.E, Bergen, NO 2008 Arnstedt & Kullgren Galleri, Båstad, SE 2007 Kapitalistischer Realismus. Projectspace, Berlin, GER Monash University, Department of Fine Art, Melbourne, AU 2006 Cut/Sink/Melt. CirkulationsCentralen, Malmö, SE ID:I gallery, Stockholm, SE 2005 Meat on Bones. SOX36, Berlin, GER 2004 Pressured Proportions. (public sculpture), Johannesburg, ZA 2003 Stolen and abandonded car. (public sculpture), Berlin, GER 2001 Other People. Gallery 60, Umeå , SE Avalanche in Sweden. (performance with Curchill Madikida), Umeå ,SE 1999 Magic Moment. Gallery Ynglingagatan1, Stockholm, SE
Group Exhibitions
2010 100th exhibition. (with Norbert Bisky, Veronica Brovall, Dennis Feddersen, Cyprien Gaillard, Katharina Grosse, Eberhard Havekost, a.o), Autocenter, Berlin, GER 2009 Forgotten Bar, Galerie im Regierungsviertel, Berlin, GER Ei saa peittää-Må ej övertäckas-contemporary art in Sweden and Finland. (curated by Göran Green and Jukka Vikberg), Eskilstuna Art Museum, Eskilstuna, SE Made in Berlin. Örebro Institute of Art, Örebro, SE 2008 Inland Empire. (curated by Aage Langhelle), Christiansand Kunstforening, Kristiansand, SE Nordic Drawing. Rackstad Art Museum, Arvika, SE Every Body Counts. Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, SE 2007 Aibophobia - Proposals for a Heterotopian Interior. One Twenty Gallery, Gent, BE L´homme nu. Centre d´art Mirha Phalaina, Montreuil, FR Exil/Berlin. Arnstedt & Kullgren, Båstad, SE 2006 Emergency Room. Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin, GER Shellheads. GLUE Projectspace, Berlin, GER Anhalt Berlin. Arntstedt & Kullgren, Båstad, SE 2005 Dripped c/o Sweden. A.r.I.A.s, Makati City, PH 2004 Wildwuchs. TheaterDiscounter, Berlin, GER Korsnäs Gummi Biennalen 2004. Falun, SE 2003 Existence and Engagement. Gubbängen, Stockholm, SE 2002 Kraftverk. Bildmuseet, Umeå, SE Kraftverk. Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, SE
