11 September � 10 Oct ober 2009 Opening Friday 11 Sept ember 5-7 pm.
A male ballet dancer is posing gracefully for the female artist, who sits in the left corner of the image with her foot on the camera release. In so many ways Elina Brotherus� Artiste avec danseur en Apollon is different from Edgar Degas� famous ballet motifs from the19th century Paris.
Brotherus�s work is poetic and yet precise. Staged in a naked room where the few details of the room are almost hidden behind a white curtain so that the relation between the artist and her model becomes the only central theme. This relation is being turned upside down as the woman is the actual creator of the image whereas the man is the object.
The image reminds of a �tableau vivant� � a kind of living picture with actors or models obviously posed. This is a recurring thing in much of Brotherus�s work where she very often uses herself as model.
Many of her photos and works of video are self-portraits typically investigating the relationship between individual and space, both in relation to interiors as well as landscapes. Her motifs and themes are usually concerned with reflection for instance in the diptych-series Points of View on Landscape where she shows the role of the perspective in the way we perceive the world. Standing in the middle of a Nordic landscape, wearing orange trousers, a model (the artist herself) is photographed with her back against the camera and then laterally reversed facing the camera, photographed from the opposite direction. The same landscape and the same person, standing in exact same place, but seen from two points of view.
At her show in Martin Asb�k Gallery, among others, she presents the series Fuji-mi. The highest mountain of Japan is the main motif of these works that literally circle around Fuji. A female figure, wearing a winter coat, is seen at different locations in more or less the same distance to the mountain.
Elina Brotherus (b. 1972) lives and works in Finland and France. She has exhibited around most of the world, in Denmark a.o. ARKEN � Museum of Modern Art where she is represented in the permanent collection with the video work Mirror.
The exhibition at Martin Asb�k Gallery is retrospective and presents a selection of works from recent years. Artist and her model is her first solo show in the gallery.
Born in 1972, Helsinki, Finland. Lives and works in Finland and France
EDUCATION
2000 Master of Arts (Photography), University of Art and Design Helsinki (UIAH) 1997 Master of Science (Analytical Chemistry), University of Helsinki
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 The Wapping Project - Bankside, London. Artist and her model, Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen. Correspondences, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, together with Hannele Rantala. The New Painting, ZAMEK Cultural Center & PF Photography Gallery, Poznan, Poland (cat.). 2008 ELINA BROTHERUS, Adventure Istiklal 6, Yapi Kredi Kazim Taskent Art Gallery, Istanbul (cat.). Etudes d'apr�s mod�le, danseurs, Ama Gallery, Helsinki. My Happiness is Round, The Wapping Project, London. Paesaggi con montagna, Malga Valarica, Spera, Italy. V.M. 21 Arte contemporanea, Rome. Elina Brotherus, in Artist File 2008, The National Art Center, Tokyo (cat.). 2007 The New Painting, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg. gb agency, Paris. Le Bleu du ciel, Le traitement contemporain, In resonance with the Biennale d'art contemporain, Lyon. The New Painting, Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Gen�ve. 2006 Model Studies, Mus�e des Beaux-arts, Caen, in Les Boreales. Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Berlin. The New Painting, Mus�e Nic�phore Ni�pce, Chalon-sur-Sa�ne. Iitti Music Festival, Iitti, Finland. The New Painting, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin. The New Painting, Millesg�rden, Stockholm. The New Painting, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. 2005 "Brotherus, tytt�", Finnish-Norvegian Cultural Institute, Oslo. Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt/M. Contemporary Art Centre Tinglado, Tarragona (cat.). FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen. Baigneurs, Maison de la Culture, Amiens Model Studies, gb agency, Paris. 2004 Galleri Stefan Andersson, Ume�. The New Painting, Mai Man�, Hungarian Photography Center, Budapest. "Brotherus, tytt�", Photography Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki. Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen. The New Painting, Chateau d'eau, Toulouse (cat.). Baigneurs, The Wapping Project, London. 2003 Kunsthalle Lophem, Lophem (cat.). Cassina Art Project, Tokyo, in Blue Horizon / Feel Finland (cat.). Baigneurs, Istanbul Biennial side event organised by FRAME, Hotel Marmara, Istanbul (cat.). The New Painting, P�rnu uue kunsti muuseum, P�rnu ; Draakoni Galerii, Tallinn. Suites Fran�aises 2, Image/Imatge, Orthez. The New Painting, Espace Photographique Contretype, Brussels (cat.). Sala Caballerizas, Murcia, in Fotoencuentros (cat.). 2002 Galeria Noua, Bucharest. Real Jardin Bot�nico, Madrid, in PhotoEspa�a (cat.). Encontros da imagem, Braga (cat.). INOVA (Institute of Visual Arts), Milwaukee, Wisconsin. H�meenlinna Art Museum, H�meenlinna. V�ster�s Konstmuseum, V�ster�s. Lunds Konsthall, Lund. Orchard Gallery, Derry. 2001 Spring, The Wapping Project, London (cat.). Suites Fran�aises 2, gb agency, Paris (cat.). The New Painting, Galleri Stefan Andersson, Ume�. 2000 Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra. Suites Fran�aises 1, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki (cat.). Galerie i8, Reykjavik (cat.). 1999 Northern Photography Center, Oulu. The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. Dance Portraits, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki. 1998 Galleri Stefan Andersson, Ume� (cat.). Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, with Andrei Lajunen.
