Fredrik Vaerslev

Text from the press release at Luminar Cité, Lisbon.

"As a painter, Fredrik Værslev works in an idiosyncratic way regarding the choice of the 'motifs', the support and the actual presentation of the works. His concept of painting includes not only the use of traditional canvas, but also painted wooden structures, which, being part of the painting, result in an unusual three-dimensionality.
In Lisbon, Fredrik Værslev appropriates, in a multiple way, the logo of Lumiar Cité gallery, which emerges as a central symbol in each of the eight large-format canvases. This series of paintings is installed in an unexpected way, emphasizing the objectness of the support of the paintings in dialogue with another series of works: the wooden fence pieces constructed and painted by the artist installed at a distance on the flat sides of the galleryʼs columns.
A set of associations, articulated by the artist and derived from his autobiographical references – which are not revealed to the public – unfold by creating a mental space between painting understood as a medium whose projected aura suggests independence and freedom in their multiple interpretations and the eternal search by the public for the utility of art. Ironically, this search does not come out defrauded: the ʻfencesʼ are transformed into ʻcoat racksʼ for hanging shirts designed by the tailor Per Christian Brath, who used a fabric that is normally used by art shippers to wrap up paintings."