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Munich
Vienna
gallery by the castle
Heidenreichstein
Ketil Eriksen is a visual artist based in Denmark. Beginning to approach art at a young age, he
only later became a professional artist, participating in several group exhibitions in Austria,
Italy, Germany, Sweden, UAE, Switzerland, China, Spain and the USA. His artistic research
focuses on shapes and colors, as well as gestural and instinctive force, applying compositional
research. The resulting abstractionism hints at an ambiguity: on the one hand, the immediacy
of gesture emerges; on the other hand, the harmonious compositions hint at premeditation
and thus one might assume a “reasoned randomness”. The titles of Ketil Eriksen's works on
canvas make these statements explicit: they are titled "Composition", emphasizing the
importance the artist himself attaches to visual harmony and weights. In fact, the canvases in
most cases present a white and neutral background against which the acrylic strokes stand
out and become protagonists. Black is the dominant and recurring color in all the works. The
artist makes immediate, quick and forceful gestures, drawing on the Abstract Expressionist
painting of the master Jackson Pollock. Black is always placed in dialogue with one or two
colors, often primary, with which the artist plays to create a layering that creates a certain
depth. The choice of color conveys a message, a symbology, which becomes subjective and
free to be interpreted by each individual viewer. The strength of black on the white canvas
inevitably refers to Zen Buddhist art and in particular its ideology: one stroke the ink
brushstroke that draws the circle is traced on silk or rice paper in a single gesture, without any
possibility of change or correction, thus showing the expressive movement of the spirit, at that
precise moment. Likewise, Ketil Eriksen's art encapsulates a precise emotion, a precise
energy that is returned to the audience to be shaped and reshaped in a personal way by
everyone.
COMPOSITION
2023
Acrylic on canvas
COMPOSITION
2023
Acrylic on canvas
de