KH Films

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  Luella Bartley (Passenger)

  September 13, 2024 Read more
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  Jamie Luoto & Tonia Nneji (When Dusk Falls)

  July 18, 2024 Read more
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  Ken Nwadiogbu (I BELONG HERE)

  June 8, 2024 Read more
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  Amy Beager (Slow Blink)

  May 31, 2024 Read more

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  Anders Scrmn Meisner (Shark Smiles and Sunflowers)

  May 24, 2024 A bunch of sunflowers plucked from a neighbour’s flower bed. The sensuous shadows of marble sculptures in a garden at sunset. The heady scent of a lilac tree on a late summer’s evening. Shark Smiles and Sunflowers, Danish artist Anders Scrmn Meisner’s first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, presents a playful new series of paintings that explore the emotional value of objects and the power of visual storytelling. The titles of Meisner’s works are almost as important as the paintings themselves. He builds his compositions from the lines that he jots down in his notebooks and then paints the titles on to the sidebar of his completed canvases. As such, the viewer encounters the work from two perspectives: first as a purely visual image and then with a written prompt that offers a clue into the story that Meisner is imagining. A seemingly simple painting of a vase of sunflowers, for example, takes on another layer of meaning when we read the title, I Stole For You Last Night while Lilac Fragrance, My Blue Eyes, Your Full Moon imbues the painting of a feathery blue, leafy tree with a sense of romantic nostalgia. To Meisner, these works are all ‘giant postcards of affection.’ They capture specific moments in time, memories of an emotional experience and physical connections. The flat, graphic style of the imagery plays into the postcard aesthetic while the vivid colour palette and Pointillist-inspired backdrops evoke a youthful, summery mood. At the same time, Meisner takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to such nostalgia. View From Expensive Holiday, for example, depicts a nonspecific sunny, seaside landscape while Chiesa La Domenica (Italian for church on Sunday) features a bunch of flowers in a Ferrari-branded pot. Both of these works knowingly play on stereotypes, inviting the viewer into the joke, while the flattened perspective and addition of slightly surreal or unexpected elements, such as the two orange suns in View From Expensive Holiday or the pink high-heels in Chiesa La Domenica, create a sense of intrigue. As Meisner puts it, ‘I am just starting the story. The rest is left to the viewer’s imagination.’ It is this playfulness that makes Meisner’s work so captivating. Each image is simultaneously familiar and open-ended, filled with endless potential. Just as Meisner takes pleasure in allowing himself to paint whatever he feels like, ‘it doesn’t matter how weird it is,’ his work invites us to let our minds wander and dream. Read more
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  Tewodros Hagos (The Enigma of the Gaze)

  April 27, 2024 Read more
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  Lars Morrell (Tickling Fingers, Infinite View)

  April 20, 2024 Skeletal forms wrapped in translucent ribbons create eerie and delicate shapes against ethereal skies. Norwegian artist Lars Morell’s paintings challenge the distinction between the visible and the invisible, our desire to make sense of space, to see things that aren’t always there. Tickling Fingers, Infinite View, his first solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, comprises new additions to what the artist calls his Translation series or abstracted still lifes. Each painting takes as its departure point an object or detail that the artist has observed and strips it back to its barest structure, exploring in the process our emotional response to shapes, lines and colours as well as the ways in which painting can record these different sensations. While Morell is heavily influenced by what he encounters in his everyday life, he is reluctant to point to specific sources of inspiration, preferring to leave his paintings open to interpretation. The bulging and spindly structures that form shapes at the forefront of these works, for example, could appear as both brutal and fragile, organic and inorganic, bringing to mind perhaps the bare branches of trees, bones, ligaments, something dragged up from the depths of the sea, the body of an alien creature. In one work, this structure is golden, wrapped in ribbons – or bandages? – of pale pink and white against a candy-coloured, rococo-esque sky, in another it is a silvery grey mass seemingly absorbing the blue and metallic tones of the turbulent cloudscape that surrounds it. ‘I am fascinated by proportions and curious about colour, by how things can be read as an appealing shape or not,’ explains Morell. This is, in part, rooted in the artist’s interest in modernist sculptures, in the work of artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Jean Arp who created pureforms that explored texture, movement and space, but also in Scandinavian landscape painters such as Anna Ancher, Kitty Kielland and Amaldus Nielsen who captured the ephemeral qualities of light. The latter’s influence is most clearly seen in the backdrops of Morell’s paintings which evoke specific temporalities while also conjuring a slightly surreal space. It is this disconnect from reality that allows us to approach the work without expectations, to view each image on its own terms, without needing to define or categorise what’s before us. At the same time, Morell provides us with a way into each painting, something to hold on to or follow, a tether. He produces a sense of harmony between foreground and background not only through his chosen colour palette, but also through the shimmering, diaphanous brushstrokes that wrap around the central structure. These marks are created using transparent pigments that are applied quickly and precisely in the alla prima (wet-on-wet) technique. As such, they cannot be easily erased or recreated, exposing the movement of the artist’s hand across the canvas or as Morell puts it, ‘a process of trial and error, the tense dance that happens in the studio.’ The show’s title points to this tension as one that is both sensorial and spatial, a push-pull between restlessness and expansiveness, the immediate and the infinite, the body and the mind. And in a sense, this is exactly what Morell’s paintings capture: a sensation, rather than a specific object, place or story. They are both records of the artistic process and an invitation to experience or feel rather than interpret the image. Read more
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  Richard Burton (Uphold)

  March 22, 2024 Read more

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  Rita Miakova (Find Me In The Garden)

  February 15, 2024 Read more
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  Rune Christensen (Amass)

  February 9, 2024 Ceramic vases, cups, pots and urns, bowls of fruit, flowers and leafy green plants, a tiger flicking its tail. Danish artist Rune Christensen’s latest series of paintings comprise colourful arrangements of objects and patterns, drawn from the collection in his studio, travels around the globe, personal memories, historic references and his imagination. Amass, his solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in Wandsworth, takes us on a journey through time and place. Each work, like a cabinet of curiosities, offers us a glimpse into the world the artist dreams of and inhabits. Christensen rarely plans his compositions, preferring to see what emerges on the canvas. As a result, each of his works incorporates a vast array of references to different cultures, histories and beliefs which are unified by the artist’s distinct graphical style and controlled colour palette. He refers to the works in this latest series in particular as ‘carpets’ or ‘tapestries’ in which multiple layers of information or stories are woven on to a single surface. This effect is heightened by the patterned border that frames almost all of Christensen’s paintings, creating an almost picture-book aesthetic which encourages us to read the image on its own terms and within the realm of make-believe. While these latest works refer to the history of still life painting as well as the contemporary social media trend for designing our domestic spaces, the disconnect from reality is important: it’s what allows Christensen to place a tiger on the shelf of a cabinet alongside a bunch of purple grapes. The tinges of fluorescent colour, a mainstay of the artist’s palette, add to the other-worldly atmosphere while also complicating our sense of time. These vivid flashes of orange, recalling the bold aesthetics of graffiti, feel startlingly contemporary while the many patterned vessels that permeate Christensen’s work reflect on craft traditions and ancient ways of living. As Christensen notes, ‘Humans first created pots as a way of storing food and water, enabling us to move away from hunting and gathering. In a similar way, painting acts as a vessel for my experiences and a release.’ Unusually for Christensen there are no figures in any of these paintings but a spectral human presence lingers around the positioning of the objects. Each ‘thing’ has been given a place to create a particular order or visual effect. ‘The arrangement of things – objects, time, family, relationships – is a process of making sense but also progress, it allows us to move from one thing on to the next,’ says Christensen. At the same time, the unruliness of the plants – the ways in which leaves cascade down the shelves or the stems of sunflowers droop and bend into awkward positions – perhaps points to the impossibility of absolute control. In a similar way, Christensen’s paintings may appear from afar to present an image of perfection, but on closer inspection, the brushstrokes become visible as well as subtle seepages of colour. It is in these imperfections that we discover surprising moments of beauty, harmony and authenticity. Christensen’s paintings are, as all images, curated to tell a story or conjure a certain atmosphere, but they are also works of the imagination, a series of fragments or beginnings that is offered to the viewer for them to reassemble into their own narrative. Read more
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  Celina Teague (It's Not Me, It's You)

  January 12, 2024 Read more
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  Zemba Luzamba (Folk Ritual)

  December 1, 2023 Read more

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  Paula Turmina (Thriving Through Chaos)

  November 17, 2023 Ant-like figures with elongated eyes and limbs appear within a barren, burnt red landscape – their bodies entwined with one another, melting into their surroundings. These are what the Brazilian artist Paula Turmina calls her ‘sun worshippers’, hybrid beings who live in rhythm with the cycle of the sun. Thriving Through (Chaos), Turmina’s first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London presents a new body of work in which the artist imagines both a future environment that has adapted to rising temperatures, and more fluid and harmonious ways of living with the earth. Turmina’s paintings are defined by a restrained colour palette that was inspired by her research into the history of Brazil and the mass extraction of brazilwood during its colonisation by Portugal. Brazilwood is the country’s national tree, which produces a natural orange-red dye. Once endemic to Brazil’s forests, it is now endangered. In Turmina’s work, the various shades of red, orange, and yellow reference this history while also anticipating a future that is not just hotter but may require adaptation to radically new terrains. The colours infiltrate not just the landscape, but also the characters’ skin, creating an impression of both warmth and claustrophobia. In Pollinating/sprouting/decaying, the largest of the works on display, which depicts the rising and setting of the sun, we encounter three characters collapsed into the earth – one appears to be literally melting in the heat, their long limbs snaking around two pools of stagnant water, while another, striking for their pregnant belly, is in the process of being melded into the trunk of a tree and the third is sprouting green shoots from their nipples and belly button. To the left of canvas, in the darker light of the moon, another three figures are caught in a trance-like state or some kind of ritualistic practice, which is taking place just beyond the frame of the image. It’s a curious scene that sits somewhere between the uncanny realm of fairy-tale and a feverish dystopian dream. For Turmina, her work is as much about hope as it is a forecast of doom. Hope that is found not just in the rejuvenation of the environment – in the fragile, yellowing stems that grow up through the cracks of the dried earth – but in the connections between her characters and their reverence for nature. Unlike much of the human race, her figures are adaptable to and embracing of the world that they live in. This is represented both through their physical fluidity – they are genderless, with soft, bendable limbs that mimic the shapes of the landscape (in some of the paintings an arm has even come detached and lies curled like a snake on a bed of brown grass) – and their actions. In All the things she said, two figures appear with their arms curved around a flaming tree, engaged in what could be some kind of mating ritual or an act of collective healing, while in Prayers to many circles, another two figures are cradling the glowing orb of the sun. ‘I was interested in imagining what it would take for something to thrive in a barren space and to create harmony in chaos,’ says Turmina, ‘because chaos is a natural part of life.’ In her paintings, a state of harmony and ‘thriving’ is achieved through powerful interconnection – between the self and the other, the body and the landscape, the earth, and the celestial realms. Read more
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  Sinta Tantra (Shrines of Gaiety)

  November 11, 2023 Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery is proud to announce the opening of their new gallery on Tanner Street in London with a solo exhibition titled Shrines of Gaiety by Sinta Tantra. Presenting all new works, the British-Balinese artist invites viewers into a shimmering, golden world filled with abstract floating shapes, the resonant sound of chanting and the heady scent of incense. This devotional space reflects on cultural heritage, consumerism and colonial pasts. Tantra's works are created in response to time and space, and are designed to subtly transform throughout the day, offering shifting moods and perspectives. This latest exhibition opens with a room of paintings with gold leaf backgrounds that reflect the light, evoking both a sense of warmth and seduction. Precisely applied in square tiles and then burnished, the golden surface appears smooth and flawless from a distance, while closer inspection reveals grid-like joins and marks of the human hand. Meanwhile, organic forms painted in Prussian blue act as an inversion of space, appearing like tunnels through the canvas and contrasting with areas of raw linen. The compositions are inspired, in part, by Tantra's reading of Paul Scheerbart's short novel, The Light Club of Batavia (1912), which revolves around the construction of a spa inside a mine that bathes its users not in water but in light. 'I love the magnetic appeal of gold, its energy-given properties throughout the ages,' says Tantra, noting the material's associations with vanity, wealth and power. In the foreground of the paintings, silhouettes and outlines were traced from sketches made over the summer period of the tropical valley overlooking her family's house in Ubud, Bali. This balancing act between light and dark, abundance and minimalism, reflects an internal conflict highlighted in the novel and also relates to the human and environmental consequences of colonialism, modernism, and tourism today. An installation of a blown-up 1930s Balinese postcard of a palm tree, printed on to wallpaper in monochrome, is pasted behind an arrangement of three-dimensional black replica rocks, further exploring this tension. It is a homage to Bali's wild and craggy coastlines, depicting perhaps an idyllic holiday scene. At the same time, it is an artificial landscape, a fake, much like the souvenirs we buy and bring home from our travels. Seen within this context, the landscape becomes non-specific, a stereotype, a kind of no place. The final room plays scenes from the 1932 film Bird of Paradise on a 10-minute loop. Again, we are transported into a tropical landscape: people are dancing, adorned with floral necklaces and swimming naked in the ocean. It is a stereotypical vision of paradise that evokes sensuality and a carefree attitude. ‘I was interested in blurring the boundaries between authenticity and Hollywood,’ explains Tantra. Removing the audio from the film highlights this disconnect. Speakers in the corners of the room play a field recording of chanting from Tantra’s village in Bali, merged with sound clips from the film, further complicating our sense of place. Here, we also find a series of smaller-scale paintings of gold leaf forms on a dark, velvety background of Prussian blue. While the compositions are similarly playful and whimsical, the mood is darker and more meditative, with lines of burning incense sticks creating a temple-like environment. A mural of two overlapping circles, one gold and the other blue, serves as a focal point, playing on the symbolism used in meditation practices and referencing cosmic forms. In this way, Tantra leads us on a journey through time and place, from light to dark, from the external world into an internal space of contemplation. The works in Shrines of Gaiety are objects of beauty that we may covet and admire simply for their poetic compositions, but like gold itself, there is more to them than meets the eye. Read more
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  Amy Beager (Paradise)

  October 20, 2023 Read more
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  Tom White (Between The Shadow and The Soul)

  October 6, 2023 Bathed in golden light, a hand reaches to tuck locks of blonde hair behind an ear. Fingertips rest on the breastbone of a languid body. A naked woman stands illuminated, facing into the shadows. London-based artist Tom White captures ephemeral moments at an intimate scale. His paintings are of people he knows and loves, their movements and bodies depicted in soft, sensuous detail. Between the Shadow and the Soul, White’s first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, presents a powerful new body of work that sees the artist observe and record the body in abstract gestures: each work is a freeze-frame of a fleeting moment, a visual memory that is both startling vivid and dreamlike, on the cusp of fading. In this latest series, White approaches the body and in particular hands as a map of the soul. Subtle gestures, the creases of the skin convey complex and sometimes contradictory emotions – vulnerability, unguardedness, exhaustion, calm, love, sorrow. His figures are all anonymous, presented in closely-cropped poses and set largely against dark, impenetrable backgrounds, and yet, they are also strikingly familiar. We recognise if not the individual then the gesture, or the moment in time – dawn, sunset, the precious moments before we get up or go to bed. As White puts it, ‘We like to think of ourselves and our relationships as unique but private moments between two people are often quite universal: we share a language of intimacy.’ Although the paintings depict only singular figures, we always sense the presence of another, lurking beyond the confines of the canvas while the depiction of hands, rendered at a larger-than-life scale, convey the idea of tactility, of connection to self and to others. In everyday life, the gestures White captures may often pass us by in their brevity but caught on canvas each becomes loaded with different layers of meaning. For instance, a hand encircling a wrist, or a fingertip tucked beneath the cuff of a shirt sleeve may suggest coyness – the model knowingly performing for the artist – or discomfort as the figure becomes aware of the light on their body and of White’s gaze. In perhaps the most brazen of the paintings a naked figure stands with their back to us, the light – like a spotlight – accentuating the curves of their silhouette, the sweeping line down their spine, the movement of their shoulder blades as they push their arms back. And yet, the longer we contemplate the image, the softer and more fluid it becomes: the brushstrokes reveal themselves while the smooth, seemingly flawless skin becomes a surface composed of different hues and delicate shading. This fluctuation between the concrete and the abstract reflects on the ways in which we understand and process imagery, but also on the nature of intimacy itself: how we can never really know or represent, whether it be in painting or words, another person fully just as we may never know the deepest, darkest parts of ourselves. It is this sense of searching that creates a kind of mournful beauty in White’s paintings: his figures bare their bodies and souls, but only ever in brief, startling fragments. Read more

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  Kwadwo Asiedu (As The World Wilts)

  August 31, 2023 Colours and textures shift like tectonic plates or cells moving beneath a magnifying glass – a world in motion. The Ghanaian, Mexican-born, Nigeria-based artist Kwadwo A. Asiedu uses his practice to explore nature at different scales, reflecting on humanity’s place within it and envisioning new symbiotic environments. For his first solo exhibition, As the world wilts, at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, Asiedu presents a series of abstracted landscapes that each take an element of flora or fauna to imagine the life that surrounds it, ranging from the perspective of a mollusc to vast, jagged glacial forms. Originally trained as a photographer, Asiedu uses his camera to capture the world around him. Over time he has built up an extensive archive of imagery that he uses to produce digital collages, combining seemingly disparate elements drawn from nature. These collages form fragmented visual maps that he then translates on to the canvas, harnessing the fluidity and texture of paint to create a sense of cohesion. Pearl-Essenced, for example, combines different textures and colour tones into a shimmering, undulating surface that imagines a mollusc looking out into its respective world. Here, the pearl which is usually considered by humans to be the most precious part of a clam is barely visible, a transparent orb floating in the lower left hand-side of the painting. ‘Through this piece I hope to bring about new ways of seeing nature and how we interact with it,’ says Asiedu. ‘Awe promotes curiosity when what we see is outside of our usual frame of reference, or when we see things that we cannot easily categorise or understand.’ Although Asiedu refers to his paintings as landscapes, they refer less to a specific geography than an emotional state. In this way, he draws on the Romantic concept of the sublime in which the subject, or viewer, is encouraged to participate emotionally and imaginatively with the natural world. The abstraction of the landscape allows this to happen more easily as the image is stripped of concrete details to appear volatile and expansive. This is perhaps most apparent in the paintings The Shepherd’s Pass and Thawed Evanescence, both of which conjure vast, unknowable worlds that elicit feelings of wonder as well as danger. While Thawed Evanescence refers to the melting of polar ice caps, with luminous channels of glacial water creating a free-flowing aqueous terrain, The Shepherd’s Pass leads us into a more barren landscape defined by steep, impenetrable rock faces. The latter environment was assembled from an amalgamation of photographs of goat carcasses, mushrooms sprouting on bark and a precious stone from Ethiopia, referencing sickness and decay as well as growth and rejuvenation. The process of combining fragmented elements refers to our fractured relationship with nature but also to the different layers of time and the constant evolution of the natural world as it is forced to adapt to changing weather patterns, rising ocean levels and the loss of wildlife. ‘My practice is rooted in the understanding that nature will ultimately persist in contrast to our mortality,’ says Asiedu. ‘I do see my art as a form of environmental activism but in the sense that I hope the images I create can bring us closer to nature, engendering a sense of respect and admiration.’ Read more
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  Where the Wild Roses Grow

  At Schloss Görne August 1, 2023 Read more
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  Dawit Abebe (የእጃችንን "Hands Matter)

  July 28, 2023 A balled-up fist, an outstretched palm, a boxing glove, golden rings, bracelets and a smouldering cigar. The Ethiopian artist Dawit Abebe uses the body – and associated objects or props – as a way of investigating social, political and cultural behaviours. His latest series, titled Hands Matter (የእጃችንን - Yejachinin) after an Ethiopian expression that emphasises the importance of our actions, examines how hands are used to express our thoughts and desires as well as to manipulate and assert power. Presented in a solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, these bold, multilayered works reflect on issues inherent to time, the environment, identity and heritage. Over the years, Abebe has developed a distinct visual language that incorporates painting, drawing and collage techniques to create highly original compositions that not only explore Ethiopian history and culture, but also seek to unpick the very nature of humanity. Since 2009, following the artist’s first trip to the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia where he witnessed vastly different social and economic realities, the body, specifically the male body, has been a central motif of his work. Appearing in enlarged and fragmented forms, the body, for Abebe, represents a collective or mode of existence rather than an individual. In this series, we encounter a collection of hands performing different gestures against colourful, abstract backgrounds. The hands have their own defining characteristics – painted nails, elongated fingers, golden bracelets and rings (common features in the artist’s work representing commitment and wealth) – but their physical positioning within the space seems to also suggests an emotion, social status or intention. Take, for example, Hands Matter E. Here the focus is on a cigar pinched between thumb and forefinger, and balancing across the backs of the knuckles. It’s a casual, seemingly passive gesture that at the same time denotes a certain type of masculinity and complacent authority. By contrast, the wobbly contours and open palm holding a golden ring in Hands Matter O suggests a sense of uncertainty or perhaps even resignation. While Abebe draws on a universal understanding of body language, the fragmentation of the body and stripping out of contextual background detail leaves the imagery open to interpretation. As such, these paintings can be read from multiple perspectives: are the down-turned palms in Hands Matter K and R reassuring or sinister? Are they symbols of comfort or oppression? Are the hands clutching a golden orb in Hands Matter M a representation of greed or hope? The use of double entendre in Abebe’s work is inspired by Ethiopian literary tradition Sem-ena Werq, but it is also part of a wider desire to express the complexity of human relationships and social structures. Put simply, things are rarely as simple as they first appear. This is also reflected in Abebe’s use of a wide range of materials and references. The colours in his paintings derive from his childhood memories of the house and the neighbourhood he grew up in while the texture of his surfaces comes from pages torn from old elementary school exercise books which Abebe pastes on to the canvas before covering with layers of paint. As symbols of ‘acquired’ and ‘regulated’ knowledge, these pages become an important part of the artist’s representation of systems of power, reflecting on how education, like hands, can be used as a tool for both empowerment and manipulation. Perhaps then, ‘Hands Matter’ could also be interpreted as everything we do and say has consequences. And while Abebe’s works may draw attention to the ways in which the actions of humankind have led to the formation of insidious power structures and social injustices, they also highlight our ability to resist and to enact change. Read more
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  Joachim Lambrechts (No Regrets)

  July 28, 2023 What does it mean to tattoo the words ‘No Regrets’ on to your skin? Is it a command or a mantra, a hope or a provocation? In Joachim Lambrechts’s latest series of paintings, faces, bare muscular torsos and shapely limbs appear heavily embellished with popular tattoo slogans and motifs against brightly coloured backgrounds. For his latest solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, Lambrechts combines his signature use of witty word-play and bold, idiosyncratic imagery to explore the ways in which we express our identities and look for meaning in an increasingly homogenous world. ‘It seems that today, surrounded by an abundance of information, material and influences, people are more than ever searching for themselves and a sense of belonging,’ says Lambrechts. ‘The irony is, of course, that all of this information actually gets in the way. We are fed ideals by social media and advertising so that we all end up wanting to wear the same clothes, to go to the same places, to get the same tattoos while at the same time longing to be unique.’ It is this paradox that lies at the heart of the exhibition. In each of the paintings, the figure is made simultaneously original, through the combination of symbols etched on to their body, and anonymous. Lambrechts sees tattoos as a form of visual storytelling – sometimes quite literally as in the painting Hard Times where the words ‘BLAME SOCIETY HARD TIMES’ are inked around the figure’s eyes – but also as a second skin or mask. In all three of the portrait paintings, for example, the features of each individual’s face are barely distinguishable amid the many images that surround them. Elsewhere, in the two paintings titled No Regrets, we encounter depictions of the male and the female torso that appear almost like pin-up posters or advertisements – both bodies are unnaturally sculpted to an image of ‘perfection’ while every inch of exposed skin is covered in tattoos ranging from skulls and flowers to knives, tear drops and the initials KH (present in every painting as a nod to Kristin Hjellegjerde gallery). Both figures have the slogan ‘No Regrets’ inked onto their stomachs: the message here is defiant and challenging, as if they are daring the viewer to judge the choices that they have made, but it is also ironic. The often-spontaneous decision to get a tattoo becomes a permanent mark on the skin, not only altering the person’s appearance but also the way in which they are perceived by others. At the same time, Lambrechts notes that there has been a significant shift in how tattoos are perceived in the Western world. While tattoos were once more commonly associated with marginal or criminal groups, today they are mainstream. As Lambrechts puts it, ‘It’s almost conversative not to have one. Tattoos have become like another type of clothing or social costume.’ This is perhaps most clearly expressed by the painting Louboutins, which depicts two tattooed women’s legs walking in high-heeled black shoes. The painting uses humour to poke fun at consumerism (the brand name is split apart by a hyphen to suggest a particular pronunciation and punctuated by an exclamation mark), but at the same time, it’s easy to imagine it being adopted as an advertisement for a luxury brand which is looking to appeal to a generation of younger, edgier consumers. For Lambrechts, the absorption of tattoos into the mainstream is no bad thing: they are a form of accessible, wearable art and in many ways, these bold, dynamic paintings are a celebration of unbridled self-expression and creativity. And yet, they also ask us to consider who or what is driving the choices that we make and how we create narratives about ourselves and others. On the occasion of Joachim Lambrechts exhibition's private view scheduled for Thursday, the 27th of July, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery is excited to welcome a renowned guest tattoo artist, Tomas Redrey. During the event, Redrey will be doing flash tattoos that derive inspiration from Lambrechts' striking artworks. We hope that this unique event will become an unforgettable and immersive experience for all! Read more

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  André Hemer (Birch Maple Oak Post Rococo)

  July 2, 2023 Read more
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  Vibeke Slyngstad (Entangled Life)

  July 1, 2023 A young couple walks through a wild landscape, their bodies bent into the wind. Sunlight streams through stems of grass... Read more
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  Luella Bartley (Intimate Spaces)

  June 30, 2023 A woman’s body appears bent, twisted and huddled in her nakedness. These portraits are anonymous, drawn from the neck down and detached from any external contexts, and yet, there is emotional depth in the woman’s physical gestures and the soft imperfections of her flesh. For Luella Bartley the rendering of the naked female form, through paint and at a large scale, is a deeply personal process of self-exploration. While she works with the same life model, the paintings emerge from a fluid and spontaneous process. ‘They’re not me but they feel like self-portraits,’ she says. For her first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, titled Intimate Spaces, Bartley presents a new series of bold, ethereal paintings and illustrated monochromatic photographs that offer compelling and contradictory perspectives of the female body and self. Each work is an expression of beauty and revulsion, discomfort and brazenness, vulnerability and strength. Previously a fashion designer, the process of art making is relatively new to Bartley and this exhibition marks her first presentation of paintings. While in previous works, she outlined the shape of the female body in scratchy black lines to produce tense, quivering forms and bandaged sculptures, these paintings express a new-found sense of confidence as well as a tenderness towards her subject-matter. Take, for example, Held, which depicts a seated figure curled into itself: their legs are crossed, one hand is holding a foot while the other is wrapped around a thigh. It’s a posture that appears childlike, made somehow even more vulnerable by the oversized limbs and dark shadowy mass of pubic hair, but it can also be read as a pose of self-protection and preservation: the body is literally holding itself. ‘For me, the work is very much about finding a way of feeling okay with vulnerability and accepting that that kind of openness can actually be very powerful and transformative,’ says Bartley. The paintings still retain the hard lines of her previous drawings as well as the exaggerated physicality, which, along with the larger-than-life scale, makes it seem as if the body is very close up and expanding in space. However, as these works make clear, the body is not only movement and space, but also emotion and soft flesh, bulging and creased, painted in delicate shades of peach, pink and white with a slight shimmer to the surface and smudges of dirt on the soles of the feet. The paintings Laying and Lever, in particular, seem to not only lay bare the body’s rawness and imperfections, but to also celebrate those qualities. ‘The more paintings I’ve made the more I’ve felt this freedom around the power of female physicality which I think is also something that comes with age,’ explains Bartley. ‘As I get older, I’m coming to terms with owning the physicality of my own body.’ In all of the paintings the background details have been stripped away so that the body appears suspended within negative space, heightening the sense of exposure and forcing the gaze to view it on its own terms. This detailed study of form is further explored in a series of photographs onto which Bartley has drawn armature lines, transforming the woman’s body into a diagrammatic shape. In contrast to the paintings, these works appear stark and precise, making clear the relationship between artist and subject (the body here is a puppet to be moulded) and yet the drawn lines also emphasise the fragility of the body. In a way, Bartley’s exploration of the female body and experience hinges around these contradictions and seeks, through the process of making art, to find a way of accepting the tensions and letting go. As such, Intimate Spaces serves as an invitation as well as a confrontation: to approach the female body with empathy and without judgement. Read more
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  RITA MAIKOVA (RIBBONS AND BONES)

  Read more

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  AIGANA GALI (LUX EX MACHINA)

  June 4, 2023 Read more
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  TEWODROS HAGOS (FRAGILE)

  June 4, 2023 Read more
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  Rune Christensen (Wildflowers)

  June 2, 2023 Read more
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  Kimathi Mafafo (Wandering The Unknown World)

  May 26, 2023 Read more

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  NABIL ANANI (THE LAND AND I)

  April 27, 2023 Read more
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  Gabriela Giroletti (Mingling Currents)

  April 15, 2023 Read more
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  Audun Alvestad (AS IF THERE YOU HAD A CHOICE IN THE MATTER)

  April 13, 2023 Read more
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  RALF KOKKE ( HOOKED ON NEVERLAND)

  March 9, 2023 Read more

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  GROUP SHOW (TOMORROW IS TOMORROW IS TOMORROW)

  KWADWO A ASIEDU, LAURA BERGER, RICHARD BURTON, FERDINAND DÖLBERG, BERTRAM HASENAUER, ROSALIND HOWDLE, VOVA KENO, ZEMBA LUZAMBA, MAXIMILLIAN MAGNUS, MARY MACKEN ALLEN, ALEXANDRA SEARLE, CELINA TEAGUE, PAULA TURMINA, TOM WHITE AND ANNA WOODWARD Read more
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  LULU BENNETT (ALIVE IN ACTUAL TIME)

  JANUARY 7, 2023 Read more
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  Jonny Briggs (Deconstructions)

  Read more
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  Lee Simmonds (Kaleidoscopes)

  January 11, 2023 Animals, figures, luminescent patterns and shadowy forms collide and swirl on the canvas in a seemingly endless dance of colour and light. Kaleidoscopes, Lee Simmonds’ third solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery marks a new approach for the artist in which he allows himself to be guided less by concept or formal technique and more by the materiality of the paint itself and the movement of colour. The result is a series of other-worldly paintings where forms appear to melt and morph into one another, offering a fresh perspective each time we return to contemplate the surface. The starting point for many of these latest paintings was an abstract mass of paint, which Simmonds rapidly applied on to the canvas in a largely instinctive manner, while at the same time limiting his colour palette to maintain a sense of clarity. The paint was then left to dry before Simmonds returned to the surface, finding himself now able to discern a multitude of possible shapes, lines and compositions. The show’s title references this playful approach, but also the ways in which our perspective is altered by light and movement. As Simmonds notes, his distance from the surface as well as the process of the paint drying and becoming less reflective is, at least partly, what enables him to see its potential. In Untitled (Snails) we see this process unfold before our eyes as multiple forms and figures rise up out of a green mass of paint that appears at the top of the canvas as dense and feathered as a meadow or forest of trees and at the bottom, rippling like a dark pond. Within this strange, in-between world, a figure fishes his arms into the depths, giant turquoise snails cling to the side of his head, a duck nestles into the curve of his torso and the curved neck of white goose frames an orange sky. Meanwhile, other, murky and fluorescent shapes shift suggestively before the gaze. This idea of duality or multiplicity runs throughout the show – a defiance perhaps against the ways in which the static nature of an image, one moment caught in time, can create a fixed and often one-sided perspective, but also reflecting on generative modes of image-making whereby one pattern or line leads on to another. To create paintings such as Drawing Room Simmonds used stencils from elements of other pieces to land upon an entirely new composition, while other works employ translucent glazes that allow him to gradually build up layers of mark making without losing what’s beneath. The former process reflects on the history of kaleidoscopes as a generative tool that was used to produce new patterns that were made into fabrics, while the latter traces the artist’s gaze and hand as he follows the paint to delineate a form and also reveals the seemingly endless possibilities of a single surface. In this way, Simmonds not only pushes the boundaries of how painting has traditionally been perceived but also challenges its potential redundancy in the rapidly changing world of AI-powered art forms. It is an expansive and evolving medium, he suggests, one that can ignite the imagination and unlock new ways of seeing. Read more

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  RICHARD SCHUR (EDGE OF ABSTRACTION)

  January 11, 2023 Read more
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  Lotte Keijzer (Chloro Galore)

  January 5, 2023 A towel slung over the door of a changing room. The oily imprint of a body on a striped deckchair. An ice cream dropped on paving stones. These are all familiar poolside scenes and yet there is something missing: where are the people? For her first solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, titled Chloro Galore, the Dutch artist Lotte Keijzer transports us into a colourful, chlorine-filled world where carefree childhood memories are filtered through an anxious adult perspective to create an uncanny disconnect between youth and ignorance, nostalgia and guilt. Growing up in the Netherlands in the 1980s, Keijzer has strong memories of time spent at swimming pools – of brightly coloured parasols, the smell of fried food and chlorine, the slipperiness of the metal steps, the roughness of the pool edges that scraped her elbows as she pulled herself on to the side, the scratchy texture of towels washed without softener, a feeling of total euphoria. ‘It was the freedom of childhood, but it was also a privileged time,’ she says, ‘Back then, people seemed unaware of environmental issues or the danger of skin cancer. They would rub olive oil on their skin and spend hours sitting in the sun. 'It was as if there was plenty of everything for everyone and forever.’ Keijzer’s paintings capture both the sensuous details of these memories through precise textures, such as the bobbly surface of a blue towel, and a blinkered perspective. The close crop and the flat, graphical style of the imagery creates an almost claustrophobic effect. This is perhaps most apparent in the painting of a water slide, where the bending curves of a pink and red striped flume fill up the canvas to leave only a small pocket of blue sky. In many ways, it is a joyful image – as if we are seeing through the eyes of a child craning their neck upwards and blinking into the sun, but at the same time, there is something vaguely ominous about the bulk of the slide and its’ never-ending form. In the painting of a pink water gun lying on the floor of a swimming pool, the zoomed-in perspective has a more startling effect. Water guns, as Keijzer, points out, are a very common poolside toy, but they are also replicas of a much more sinister object and yet this association is somehow forgotten or overlooked when children are chasing each other around screaming and shooting out jets of water. The physical absence of figures in these paintings heightens our awareness of these kinds of narratives. Undistracted by faces, movement, sounds and smells – the everyday chaos of poolside scenes –, we are forced to reflect on the wider consequences of our actions. Should we really be consuming sugary ice creams? Buying cheap plastic toys that resemble weapons? Basking in the sun while the world around us is, quite literally, burning? ‘Or is it okay,’ asks Keijzer, ‘to sometimes be oblivious? Are there moments, in adulthood, when we can relax, without having to think about the wider picture or is that something that is only allowed in childhood?’ The title of the exhibition Chloro Galore makes playful reference to this dilemma by associating the toxic substance of chlorine with the joyful feeling of abundance just as the intense colour palette of Keijzer’s paintings creates an alluring aesthetic while also highlighting the unreality of the world perspective that she is creating. Rather than offering any solutions to questions she poses, Keijzer invites us to simply reflect on the ways in which we view and pass judgement on the world. Read more
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  Edouard Baribeaud & Sophia Andreotti (Safe Spaces)

  December 1, 2022 Read more
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  Rebecca Brodskis (Let’s Talk About You and Me)

  November 29, 2022 Read more

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  Rufai Zakari in conversation with Patrice Bouédibéla

  September 22, 2022 Ghanaian artist Rufai Zakari stitches together upcycled plastics to create textured, woven surfaces that bear a deep relationship to the... Read more
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  ZEMBA LUZAMBA (In the name of…)

  September 2, 2022 Groups of smartly dressed figures appear against abstracted coloured backgrounds – gathered around a table, holding umbrellas, clasping each other’s... Read more
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  Forrest Kirk (Temple Run)

  August 11, 2022 Glinting with gold and rendered in vivid hues of red, green, brown and white, heavily textured forms shift between figuration... Read more
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  Houda Terjuman (When hope smells like petrichor)

  June 18, 2022 Armchairs, cupboards, cardboard boxes, cars and boats appear within vast grassy landscapes, set against misty orange, green and golden skies.... Read more

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  Wendimagegn Belete (Codeswitch)

  June 11, 2022 How can we understand the present without first understanding the past? This question sits at the heart of Ethiopian artist... Read more
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  Wendimagegn Belete On Codeswitch

  June 11, 2022 How can we understand the present without first understanding the past? This question sits at the heart of Ethiopian artist... Read more
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  Sara Berman and Luella Bartley (Armoured)

  May 11, 2022 Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery is delighted to present the first exhibition by artists Sara Berman and Luella Bartley running from 11... Read more
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  Celina Teague (Nature Interrupted)

  April 27, 2022 Monstrous hybrid beings appear against acid skies and barren landscapes, creating surreal, otherworldly scenes that sit uncomfortably between nightmare and... Read more

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  Richard Stone (the knight divided)

  April 27, 2022 Fluid sculptural forms evoke the wild, tumultuous movement of the sea or else, the uncanny stillness of a dense forest,... Read more
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  Tae Kim < Faceless Gamers >

  March 26, 2022 Translucent, otherworldly figures appear floating in soft-hued, limbo-like spaces, each expressing a distinct mood or psychological state. These delicate portraits... Read more
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  Ruprecht Von Kaufmann "In the Street"

  March 19, 2022 A punk crouches on the street watching passersby while glamorous young couples party and smoke cigarettes, and elderly aristocrats pose... Read more
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  Rune Christensen "Wanderlust"

  Crowds of people and mythic creatures appear clustered on the canvas in richly patterned clothes washed in cool hues of... Read more

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  Preston Douglas “CTHRUME”

  February 10, 2022 Swathes of translucent organza and chiffon fabric appear scrunched, draped and stretched over industrial aluminium frames, swirling with abstracted lines... Read more
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  Dawit Abebe ““ መጠን “ The Balance of Things”

  January 8, 2022 ‘Although my life is influenced by the society I live in, the environment I am part of and the country... Read more
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  Januario Jano “IMBAMBAS: Unsettled Feelings Of An Object And Self “

  January 7, 2022 Vibrant strips of fabric and thread are assembled into graphical textile compositions that hang alongside cracked monochromatic portraits and photographs... Read more
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  Gabriela Giroletti "Breezy"

  November 19, 2021 Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery is pleased to present Breezy, a presentation of new paintings by Gabriela Giroletti at the gallery’s Wandsworth... Read more

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  Nengi Omuku "Chorus"

  November 17, 2021 The body of a reclining woman lies stretched out like an undulating landscape in front of a crowd of bodies... Read more
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  Joachim Lambrechts "Siluetas"

  November 12, 2021 A skull smoking a cigarette, an oversized duck laying an egg, and a smiling butterfly. These are the eccentric visions... Read more
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  Vibeke Slyngstad "Dor Beetles Slumbering at Dusk"

  October 16, 2021 Tall stems of flowers, grass and reeds tower against the sky as soft sunlight streams through their leaves. Norwegian artist... Read more
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  Kimathi Mafafo "Gestures From the Awakened Mind"

  October 8, 2021 South African artist Kimathi Mafafo’s bold, new collection of textile works invite audiences into a vibrant, tactile landscape where expressive... Read more

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  Martine Poppe "A Piece of Me"

  October 8, 2021 Large-scale canvases filled with cloudscapes and sun-bleached foliage create a lofty, ethereal atmosphere in A Piece of Me, Martine Poppe’s... Read more
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  Sinta Tantra

  Birds of Paradise September 17, 2021 Birds of Paradise Voyage to the Terrestrial Paradise. Five hundred years ago, in 1519, a fleet of ships set out... Read more
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  Sinta Tantra "Birds of Paradise"

  September 15, 2021 Five hundred years ago, in 1519, a fleet of Spanish ships set out on a voyage around the globe in... Read more
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  Yassine Balbzioui "Funny Games"

  September 6, 2021 Amidst a verdant tropical landscape, a man sits astride an inflatable pink flamingo as if he were floating on a... Read more

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  Audun Alvestad “Tan Lines”

  September 2, 2021 Bare pink bodies lounge on candy coloured towels and beneath parasols on the beach, while long water-slides twist through lush... Read more
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  André Hemer and Anne Vieux < Sensor Glow >

  July 21, 2021 Thick gestures of paint in seductive shades of pink and red call to mind the shimmering petals of flowers blooming... Read more
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  Sara Berman “Taking Space”

  July 21, 2021 Gargantuan women appear suspended in soft coloured, bruising backgrounds, their bodies twisted in acrobatic movement and dynamic gestures. These are... Read more
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  Wendimagegn Belete "Your Gaze Makes Me"

  July 9, 2021 A series of proud figures appear vibrantly dressed in elaborate, traditional costumes, while their faces are veiled by black. For... Read more

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  Lulu Bennett “Ariel”

  June 26, 2021 Vividly rendered characters appear against a collage of painted scenes that contrast romantic, pastoral imagery and bright, cartoonesque colours with... Read more
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  Lee Simmonds and Rebecca Brodskis "Tête à Tête" gallery tour

  June 19, 2021 19 JUNE - 1 AUGUST 2021 Nevlunghavn Read more
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  Tewodros Hagos “THE DESPERATE JOURNEY II” Gallery Tour

  June 16, 2021 16 JUNE- 17 JULY 2021 London (London Bridge) Exhausted faces, framed by bright orange life jackets, gaze out at the... Read more
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  In Orbit - Rachel Garrard & Rithika Merchant

  June 5, 2021 Intricate, mythical scenes populated with winged women and mystical symbols appear lush and vibrant alongside subtle, geometric forms painted in... Read more

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  Rufai Zakari "A New Dawn" Gallery Tour

  May 21, 2021 Flamboyantly dressed figures appear against colourful patterned backgrounds, at once painterly and graphic in style. Ghanaian artist Rufai Zakari utilises... Read more
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  Wabi-Sabi Gallery Tour

  May 14, 2021 In the context of art, the ancient Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi is often defined as a kind of flawed beauty,... Read more
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  Dawit Abebe "Longs Hands" Gallery Tour

  May 1, 2021 1- 29 MAY 2021 BERLIN Monstrous, oversized arms loom over crowds of small people against a backdrop of children’s sketches... Read more
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  Christiane Pooley "The Need for Roots" Gallery Tour

  April 15, 2021 16 APRIL- 15 MAY 2021 London (Wandsworth Town) Expansive, blue-tinted landscapes appear profoundly empty or otherwise, occupied by faceless figures... Read more

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  Christiane Pooley "The Need for Roots" Gallery Tour (Spanish Subtitles)

  April 15, 2021 16 APRIL- 15 MAY 2021 London (Wandsworth Town) Expansive, blue-tinted landscapes appear profoundly empty or otherwise, occupied by faceless figures... Read more
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  Gerald Chukwuma "Eclipse of the Scrolls" Gallery Tour

  April 3, 2021 3 APRIL - 8 MAY 2021 London (London Bridge) Through a frenzy of colours and symbols that are chiselled, burnt... Read more
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  Kelechi Nwaneri "Myths" Gallery Tour

  March 27, 2021 27 March - 24 April 2021 BERLIN Black figures with striking motifs painted white onto their skin appear against burning... Read more
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  Muhammad Zeeshan "Nangeli" Gallery Tour

  March 4, 2021 5 MARCH - 10 APRIL 2021 London (Wandsworth Town) Bare-chested women stare solemnly outwards at the viewer, their poses at... Read more