FREDERIK KLØVE JACOBSEN
Ny Munkegade 74 // baggården // DK-8000 Aarhus C facebook.com/artbyfkj // frederikkloevejacobsen.tumblr.com // frederik-k-jacobsen.dk // frederikkjacobsen@mail.dk // + 45 4083 4232
2014
By Henrik Broch-Lips, art historian and art critic
It is mainly symbols and figurations derived from the American underground culture, which Frederik Kløve Jacobsen uses in his pop-art inspired paintings. Thereby they seem different from the remaining, Danish contemporary art. In Kløve’s versions of art in the 21st century, Tom Waits’ shabby Frank-figure trudges out the door, the alcoholic cult writer Charles Bukowski is still hanging about in the bar – or the Statue of Liberty is going down with the American flag. Kløve Jacobsen’s expressive joy of painting and disrespectful, confident, cultural “hacking” remind you of the American picture- and cocaine junkie Jean-Michel Basquiat’s imaginative paintings from the 80s. The black artist hero exceeded the limits laid down by visual art and made graffiti-inspired paintings, which immediately fascinated Andy Warhol, the king of pop-art. Less radically than Basquiat, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen also presents intense hacker-paintings. They contain explosive outlets and are often populated by images of blinded flies, giant egg-shaped figures, cartoon figures and black musicians. In his effort to create new and unique samplings, the Danish artist steals left, right, and centre from the commercial and popular culture’s infinite amount of icons. Armed with cheap spray cans, broad brushes, ready printed figures of rubber laminate, adhesive tape, red iron clubs, and fat, expensive acrylic paint, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen aggressively attacks the large canvasses that are fixed to extra strong stretchers. Often with Soundgarden, Nirvana, White Stripes, Miles David and Sex Pistols as inspiring background noise in the studio. With inspiration from Jackson Pollock’s drip painting technique, he frequently lays down the painting in the middle of the process and intuitively throws paint on the canvas. When the painting is subsequently raised, the aqueous paint runs down the surface and provides the painting with a vertical direction. Then, the motif is adjusted by adding lines and words such as “INC”, “OXE”, “EXIT”, or entire sentences as for instance “Jack is resting by the tracks of a past innocence”, which refers to the child’s innocent childhood. The pictorial quotations in the expressive paintings are often referential objects such as Betty Boop and Taiwanese toy cars. Or else the signs are graffiti tags with a political content, such as the crown and the saxophonist, which are probably borrowed from Basquiat’s staged rebellion of the 80s. And exactly because the borrowed signs have a special meaning, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen’s sampling differs from the exhaustive and depthless, post-modern method of acquisition. At least in the way that it finds expression in the American pop- and conceptual art, where the purely formal quotation is dominating. The paintings cannot just be assimilated to the well-known discourse of post-modern art, concerned with the death of the individual and the levelling quality of consumer culture. The criticism of the controlling art institution presented in the personal paintings is too obvious for that. Especially since the Danish artist repeatedly inserts a standardized, commercial pictogram of a snobbish judge in his paintings. A know-all censor who turns his judgemental look on the artist and on us.
CV
Danish painter/artist
FREDERIK KLĂ˜VE JACOBSEN Born in Aarhus, Denmark, 1972
EXAMPLE OF DECORATION • Kellers Park, Brejning by Vejle (5 Star Spa & Wellness Hotel) – for Comwell
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
www.comwellkellerspark.dk
OTHER DECORATIONJOBS • Gabriel textile factory in Aalborg, Denmark • AKF Koncern in Copenhagen, Denmark
www.gabriel.dk www.akf-holding.dk
• The Dermatologisks in Aarhus, Denmark • VUC Vestegnen
www.vestegnenhfVUC.dk
EXAMPLE OF EXHIBITION • Galleri Dock 56 in Hamburg, Germany
www.dock-56.de
www.dock-56.de
• Skagen odde naturcenter, Denmark
www.skagen-natur.dk
IS CURRENTLY REPRESENTED IN ... • Galerie Moderne Silkeborg, Denmark
www.galeriemoderne.dk
OTHER REPRESENTATIONS ... • Galleri bn24 in Hamburg, Germany • Galleri Salling in Skive, Denmark
www.bn24.eu www.gallerisalling.dk
EXAMPLE OF ASSIGNMENTS: • Chosen Artist of the Year 2007 by Aarhus Stiftstidende (Newspaper) With this award Frederik made two lithographics in connection with artist and stoneprinter Niels H. Peitersen. • ”The Last Supper” 2009, for artcollector Poul Jensen (Renovac, advising engineers).
”The Last Supper” 2009, 200 x 400 cm
“The Last Supper” is deposited at ARoS, Aarhus Artgallery
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS: • Teacher at Silkeborg Collage, 2012
www.silkeborghojskole.dk
9th and Hennepinn, 2008 //
Projects, 2011 //
160 x 160 cm
170 x 170 cm
Board noise, 2006 //
150 x 150 cm
Rules for Jacks urban loophole, 2007 //
150 x 180 cm
Jims marbles, 2012 // 170 x 170 cm
Blessed privacy, 2012 //
150 x 150 cm
Pinky, 2009 160 x 160 cm
Seed, 2012 140 x 220 cm
Replacement INC., 2006 150 x 250 cm
Pure, 2009
// 200 x 250 cm
Drain, 2010 //
150 x 220 cm
Brooklyn rose, 2012 //
140 x 170 cm
Jacks lost liberty, 2007 //
190 x 250 cm
Jacks soul chart, 2006 //
Blue note bird, 2012 //
160 x 190 cm
100 x 160 cm
Halo INC., 2010 //
140 x 200 cm
Dive, 2011 // 150 x 170 cm
Fetch the junk yard dogs, 2010 //
Money Men, 2005
140 x 160 cm
// 160 x 190 cm
Eyeball kid, 2012 // 150 x 150 cm
Babel memo, 2012 // 120 x 120 cm
Gas Station, 2013 //
150 x 150 cm
Champ, 2013 // 150 x 150 cm
Uden titel, 2009 //
190 x 210 cm
Pure, 2012
// 150 x 150 cm
Jims crossing, 2011 //
115 x 230 cm
Harvest, 2012 //
170 x 220 cm
All eyes on Jim, 2013 //
150 x 160 cm
Fixed teeth, 2013 //
190 x 200 cm
Para, 2013 // 160 x 160 cm
Blue note rec., 2014 //
Majoun, 2014 //
130 x 130 cm
150 x 150 cm
Salt Peanuts, 2014 //
200 x 200 cm
FREDERIK KLØVE JACOBSEN
Ny Munkegade 74 // baggården // DK-8000 Aarhus C facebook.com/artbyfkj // frederikkloevejacobsen.tumblr.com // frederik-k-jacobsen.dk // frederikkjacobsen@mail.dk // + 45 4083 4232