CONTEMPORARY DANISH PAINTER

FINDLAY GALLERIES

Originally from Denmark, but currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. His work has caught the eye of the international art world has been shown widely in the UK, across the continent and in the USA.

Born in the Danish countryside in 1974, Henrik Simonsen is a contemporary artist with a unique style. In his work hand drawing and brilliant colors imbue the viewer with a surreal vision of the landscape. Inspired by traditional Scandinavian art and design, his paintings echo nature with bold shapes and vivid color.

Simonsen has exhibited with such modern masters as Bridget Riley, Victor Pasmore, Stephen Conroy and Frank Auerbach. His highly acclaimed solo show at the Royal Opera House in 2006 was followed by a commission from a newly built museum in Belgium where he was presented as part of the permanent collection alongside major masters of the second half of the twentieth century.

Findlay Galleries is delighted to be the exclusive representative of Mr. Simonsen’s work in America.

Artist Statement

When asked what I do I will tell people that I paint but I think that I should say that I draw. The main element in my work is drawing. The attraction to drawing stems from the directness of the mark making process and the simple, yet magical way lines on a surface create shapes and forms.

I do all my drawing freehand even if I repeat an element, as I feel that projectors or stencils take the life and strength out of the line.

My work has had nature as a central theme for years. There is a lesson to learn from how nature is able to vary simple forms infinite. I think this is where my Scandinavian background becomes evident. Scandinavia has a long tradition for art, design and architecture inspired by natural forms. For me personally the draw of the subject matter is its inexhaustible richness and metaphorical ability to speak of human existence. Of life, passion and the brevity of existence.

Like the subject matter the process of creating them is an organic process where the elements are allowed to ‘grow’ onto the canvas. The first mark will suggest others and in this way I will move around the canvas until it is completed. The canvas will have washed off paint poured onto it, graphite drawn on it, and oil paint applied to it. There is no set order to the process above and any of them can be repeated a number of times. The last few years paint and colour has gone from very minor roles to playing a bigger part. I also find that the application of paint, especially when poured or thrown at the canvas gives the drawn lines an important contrast.

What is very import to me when I work is the history of the piece. This is why I rarely attempt to erase anything completely on a canvas. I prefer to keep the drawing that I later abandoned, changed or worked over as a part of the finished piece. I feel this gives the painting a feel of having occupied a period in time because the layers allow the history of creation to be visible rather then reducing the piece to just an impenetrable surface.