Hell hounds from the north: under this title, two painters meet who both come from the spray can and have taken it in opposite directions. In Morten Andersen’s work, form dissolves into lines, layers and rhythm. In BASE23’s work, it condenses into creatures, gods and mechanical beings.
Morten Andersen: lines in motion
In Hell Hounds from the North we present works by Morten Andersen that belong to neo-abstraction, also known as abstract urban contemporary art. Artists such as Futura 2000, Boris Tellegen and José Parla are associated with this movement. Andersen paints curved lines, abstract forms, overlays and graphic patterns and distorts them into a rhythmic structure of colour tones, strong contrasts and powerful visual elements.
His pictures are full of energy and dense with detail. The elements fan out and flow back together into a whole like breaking waves. The many layers of colour and form offer an insight into a world between emotion and calculation. His origins in graffiti remain visible in his handwriting.
BASE23: gods armed with pop
BASE23 creates gigantic creatures: fusions of animal and machine, South American deities that seem hurled from the future, Chinese dragons, indigenous totems and tiki figures. Especially in a grey urban environment, he relies on bright, glowing colours.
His mythical animal gods come to life on canvas, step into a sober world and claim their place in our consciousness with the means of pop. Perfectly formed and full of martial force, these futuristic gods find their way into urban space. BASE23 combines pop surrealism with graffiti, ethnic imagery with science fiction.
About the artists
Morten Andersen was born in Aalborg in 1976. In the 1990s he was active as a graffiti artist. Years of working with spray paint led him from typographic elements to an increasingly free and abstract world of colour and form. His work has long been shown in galleries and exhibitions in Denmark. In recent years it has also been exhibited in Berlin at the Stroke Art Fair, as well as in Barcelona, London, New York and Miami, there during Art Basel Miami Beach.
BASE23 discovered the spray can as a creative tool in 1989 and has continually developed his use of it ever since. He studied graphic design and typography and lives and works as an independent artist in Berlin. In recent years, galleries in Barcelona, London, Melbourne, Paris and Berlin have shown his pictures.
“Hell Hounds from the North”
BASE23, Morten Andersen
Vernissage: Friday, 25 March 2011, from 7 pm
Exhibition: 25 March – 29 April 2011
Pretty Portal, Brunnenstraße 12, 40223 Düsseldorf
