Liv Mette Larsen: Scrap Metal New York Paintings Opening Reception

Helac Fine Art is pleased to present Scrap Metal New York Paintings an exhibition of recent paintings by Liv Mette Larsen. This is her first solo exhibition in New York and will include works from her series Scrap Metal, Scrap Metal Heap, Big Men, Berlin Blue Abstract Walking, Subway, and Smith Street. In a career spanning more than thirty years, Larsen’s intuitive paintings, watercolors and drawings establish an energetic dialogue about perception and the transitory moments of life. Working primarily in monochrome silhouettes, she employs alternating scales to reconstruct the subjective realities of her narratives. She proposes an inductive perspective, abstracting people and things from her daily encounters that reflect the circumstances of Larsen’s practice. Her paintings dissolve the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, with objects transforming fluidly into organic geometric forms. She paints with densely applied egg tempera to create the illusion of volume to allow isolated elements to become vivid archetypal forms and graphic signs. Throughout her recent works, urban space and the ways in which people engage with it have been a primary concern. Drawing inspiration from the fleeting moments of everyday life, figures are devoid of context, either standing alone or with blocks of color. In Big Men (2011), heavily bundled men isolated against the canvas appear to be engaged in a ritualistic dance, alternately moving closer and further away. Likewise in Berlin Blue Abstract Walking (2010), an unknown woman, identifiable only by her profile, poses in each canvas. Reduced to strictly physical cues, each stance ranges from contemplative to interrogative. This series takes its title from a specific blue that was discovered by eighteenth-century alchemists working in the Prussian capital of Berlin.Helac Fine Art LLC ”¢ 547 West 27 th Street, New York, NY 10001 ”¢ 1 646 543 5222 ”¢ www.helacfineart.com From anonymous figures to pared-down industrial environments, she seeks to integrate the identifying characteristics of her location with her works. Larsen approaches the subway as a linear system reminiscent of Mondrian’s urban grids while in Scrap Metal and Scrap Metal Heap (2011) Larsen records the scrap metal heaps that were immediately outside of the window of her Brooklyn studio. Reduced to abstract swathes of bright yellow, blue, orange, and green, the utility of each jagged piece dissolves into an amoeboid shape. In Smith Street (2011), the blurred relationship between figure and ground disorients perspective. Although Larsen makes reference to a specific location, her paintings examine the fundamental relationships between people and their surroundings, preserving initial observations and glimpses to allow for prolonged reflection.