Inner Atlas-solo exhibition-galleri nb-viborg-denmark-2018
Photos by: Kurt Nielsen, Lene Hellstern & Henriette Hellstern.
Press release by Lisbeth Beyer Mogensen:
A picturesque autopsy
'Inner Atlas', which can be seen from 11 March to 15 April, is the visual artist Henriette Hellstern's third solo exhibition in the Main Gallery of Gallery NB in Viborg. She is educated at Funen Art Academy in 2011. Throughout her career, the 38-year-old woman, originally from East Jutland, has exhibited her expressive and insightful expressionist contemporary art in many parts of the world.
In her studio at Amager, Henriette Hellstern creates the art that has brought her to New York, San Francisco, Florence, Vilnius, Sofia, Berlin and Charlottenborg's Spring Exhibition and now for the third time to Viborg.
She is also current with an exhibition in Brisbane, Australia, and until March, the tour goes to Gallery NB. In addition, she has received excellent prices in Frankfurt and Tallinn.
The body's ability to remember
Common to her works is that they are abstractions of the body's anatomy and cultivate the body's language. For the Inner Atlas exhibition, Henriette Hellstern has so-called autopsied the body with brush and paint. Her studio is flowing with picturesque, gender-neutral body parts in her work to uncover the body and its ability to recall both good and evil - among other things, the little vertebra Atlas, who has also added a name to the exhibition.
Atlas is both a collection of maps, but also the neck whirl that allows us to nod yes with the head. In many ways a vital mechanism. If we nod yes at the wrong time, it may have consequences. And if the Atlas vertebra becomes damaged, it can hurt the whole body.
"The Yes, is my Achilles heel. I'm very bad at saying no. Therefore I have hanged a 'No!' sign in my studio - so I'm constantly reminded that I do not have to say yes to everything. I'm not going to get involved with every little thing, "says the visual artist.
The works are painted on the floor
In his current exhibition, Henriette Hellstern uses an asymmetric format to give the works an expression that extends beyond the rectangular format and gives the work an additional dimension. She also uses a technique where she 'opens' the work by making the first brush strokes on the wall hung canvas, then laying the it on the floor where new angles appear on the painting and a new approaches arise to the final work.
"I see the art as an important dialogue and my works about the body's language deal with something as basic as" what it's like to be human right now, "says Henriette Hellstern, living with her rainbow family in the house, which extends to the studio.
Her vision with her art is to create a space where we can communicate with each other across the divisions. A painting that seems difficult to talk about can in fact be understood from the individual's situation and life. And when we listen to each other's views, we can become more intelligent and who knows perhaps more empathetic?
"My tentacles are always out and my expressive sensitive I is hit by everyday cruelty and injustice but also of hope. If my works and my person, my history and experiences can make the world a more exciting place - a better place, my goal is achieved. "
