Jacob Brostrup

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JACOB BROSTRUP CV Born 1973 Denmark 1998-2002: Student at Danmarks Designskole (The National School of Design) EXHIBITIONS: 1998: Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling (KE) (Cencured group exhibition) 1999: Kunstnernes Sommerudstilling (Cencured group exhibition) 2000: Kunstnernes Sommerudstilling (Cencured group exhibition) 2001: Charlottenborgs Forårsudstilling (Cencured group exhibition) 2002: Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling (KE) (Cencured group exhibition) 2004: Galleri NB, Viborg, Denmark 2005: Galleri Python, Copenhagen, Denmark 2005: "The Modern Landscape"Galleri NB, Roskilde, Denmark 2005: Art Copenhagen 2006: Galleri NB, Roskilde, Denmark 2006: Art Copenhagen 2006: Kunstgalleriet, Stavanger, Norway 2007: Galleri Bi-Z, Kristiansand, Norway 2007: Galleri NB, Viborg, Denmark 2007: Galleri Brantebjerg, Nykøbing Sj. , Denmark 2007: Art Copenhagen 2008: "Another View" Galleri NB, Roskilde, Denmark 2008: Kunstgalleriet, Stavanger, Norway 2009: "City Lights",Galleri NB, Viborg, Denmark 2009: Galleri Brantebjerg, Nykøbing Sj. , Denmark 2010: Galleri NB, Roskilde, Denmark 2010: Kunstgalleriet, Stavanger, Norway 2010: “Spectacles” Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Denmark 2010: “Intermezzo”, galleri NB Viborg, Denmark 2011: Galleri Kirk, Aalborg, Denmark 2011: City Sense, galleri NB, København, Denmark 2011: Galleri A, Oslo, Norway 2011: Galerie Alex Wiberg, Stockholm, Sweden ADMISSION: The Danish Arts Foundation COMMISSIONS: 2006: Bjergsnæsskolen, Viborg 2007: Støvring Gymnasium, Støvring 2010: Region Midt, Viborg 2010: Forum Advokater, Roskilde 2011: Skallerupvej, Aalborg East -------------------- Essay by Thomas Teglgaard On the other side A street, a fountain, a square, a church You recognise these places when you look at Jacob Brostrup’s paintings But no! You have not watched the sky or the buildings, or the railway tracks for very long before you start to wonder: Do I remember this strange mystery hovering over this particular place, this spell, this riddle? I know the scene, and yet there seems to be something else, something fairytale-like I have not seen before The paintings are detailed and yet blurred at the same time As if the eye cannot focus on everything in one glance The painter only gives this much of the motif, as if he wants to say: “Look at this, you know most of it, the rest is up to you” It stirs your fantasy It calls for the viewer’s own interpretation when the places we know are transfi gured into stripes of lively colours Each stripe is light The stripes show the natural light which changes with the sun’s movement during the day, during the year Layers of changing perspectives Colours resemble moods You see the painting as a whole and yet as fragments of colours, as in the real world The changing interpretation of the exact same place is closely linked to the changing moods we all undergo In this way the different moods, these stripes of light, become the central compositions, and the main subject can be seen as the structure and the fundament for the various colours After the first joy of recognising the setting and the colours you can move further into the painting: the car by the roadside, the building in the background But I cannot see what is between the two stripes Still it is as if I know what I will find I know everything, I have seen it several times before A man walking his dog, a mother kissing her child I do not see it in the painting, I never really notice them, and yet I know they exist I could have been standing there – but now I am here – on the other side watching the same It is inspiring to stand here on the other side, watching something I know so well but never really noticed before And, in all its simplicity, this could easily be Jacob Brostrup’s artistic mission On the other side Part of artikel from the danish magasine ART by Ole Lindboe The Possibilities of Color For Jacob Brostrup, every painting is a form of declaration, namely his interpretation of the surrounding reality And it is here that his use of color plays an important role “I often see the different colors as a filter that changes the way we see things, much like one’s mood determines the way one sees things That is why even the slightest shift in color can change a whole picture I have always been interested in painters that return to the same subject time and again, but each time employ a different light setting and subtle color changes Simply stated, every individual strip offers a glimpse of the finished work - and it is this, that I find fascinating,” says Jacob Patterns in the Sand Some years ago Jacob became interested in Rangoli, the Indian art form of using colored sand to create intricate paintings When these elaborate pictures, or mandalas, were finished, a lama would sweep the sand away with a fine broom Remaining was the original picture imprinted with the fibres of the broom “I have always been interested in pictures, but in a larger context Not just art, but also all of the pictures and motifs that flicker by throughout the course of a day; billboards, televisions, cityscapes, and so on As an artist, I look for the picture within the picture, and for displacement and dissolution No picture is static, everything is in a constant state of flux - and it is this process that I wish to reflect in my paintings” ------------------------------------ Interview publiched on Kopenhagendk by Lise Kristoffersen Interview The young artist Jacob Brostrup (b 1973) is about to open a show entitled Another View in Gallery NB Roskilde The exhibit consists of a new series of paintings inspired by New York and the hectic rhythms of big city life The paintings reproduce urban scenes in stripes, which are both blurred, yet at the same time sharp Copenhagen Magazine sat down with Jacob to discuss stripes, motifs, and the perfect brush stroke The exhibition Another View features mainly scenes from New York What is it that New York has, that you could use in this exhibit? I have recently been in New York and was struck by the merging of so many different cultures into one I don’t think this is found in so many other cities If you ride on the subway and meet five different people, there is a big chance that they come from five different parts of the world And it is this reality that shapes my paintings, in that I feel as though each stripe reflects a certain understanding of reality Or that they each express a different point in time, be that point historical, or just a different point in time in the course of a day You explore mainly urban scenes in this show Yes, scenes that posess depth I like to stand in front of a painting and get the feeling that I’m being pulled into the picture, or a sense that I’m only seeing or feeling the colors Since I’ve been a kid I’ve been fascinated with the ability to build up perspective in a painting Now you’ve worked with these stripes for a couple of years What is it with you and stripes? The long story is that I was at the Louisiana Museum north of Copenhagen in 1989 to see a Dali exhibit, and it was truly an eye opener After the show, I began to read about Dali, and I found, among other things, that he had at one time written a paper on different painting techniques For years I tried to find this, but never could 12 or 13 years later I was in Los Angeles, and at one the museums I visited I was lucky enough to come across the paper Dali wrote, which I immediately bought It covers a variety of topics, but one part, in particular, discusses how one can achieve the perfect brush stroke And it was this story that fascinated me Of course there are certain brush strokes in art history which stand apart Rembrandt has an ink drawing of a young girl, and it more or less is composed of only 3 brush strokes My paintings are an illusion of the perfect stroke In some of my paintings there are only 5 or 6 strokes, but they are painstakingly built up and arranged with extreme care Some times it takes a whole day to prepare a single brush stroke You use photographs as a source for your paintings Yes, the photographs are like a sketch I’m much more interested in painting than in photography Actually the photos work like a skeleton that I use to build up colors I use these qualities that are in the motifs as a starting point for light and color The colors I use have some sort of connection to the original picture So when I start working on a painting, I try to push the color schemes as far away from the original as I can, thus manipulating the overall mood of the picture I try to start each picture without a preconceived notion about how the colors and tone should be The motif needs to be an invitation into the picture for the viewer, but also for me One needs to be sucked into the picture For me, painting is simply the joy of creation, and I hope this shines through in the work itself Many of the paintings are pure explosions of color What is your thought process concerning color schemes? I don’t use colors symbolically, but still the colors attain a certain symbolism in the end If I use a red color, and that color runs down the canvass, it can easily begin to look like a traffic accident In this way it is quite interesting to juggle with colors, and ultimately feelings Because colors carry these feelings and moods… Yes, a single color shift can change the understanding of a painting One can imagine that each color or stripe is a person’s sense of the world We all see the world differently due to cultural differences and so on We are sitting here at an exhibition that is more or less sold out What happens next? All the hoopla that goes with an opening - and the fact that all the pictures are already sold – is exciting and extremely motivating But it is long removed from the daily work in my studio Of course I have ambitions concerning what I wish to accomplish, but we’ll have to wait and see

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