IN THE LOOKING GLASS
January 19, 2007 – March 17, 2007
Galerija Gregor Podnar is pleased to announce In the Looking Glass, an exhibition by Magnus Larsson.
In the Looking Glass is Magnus Larsson’s first major solo exhibition outside Sweden. The title alludes to a line from the music group Kraftwerk and points to the fact that most of Larsson’s works deal with the issue of mirroring, a prominent reference in history of self- portraiture.
The current exhibition presents two large-scale paintings from Larsson’s Untitled (Portrait) series, several middle-sized paintings, and a series of paintings in oil on canvas paper. In these works, Larsson uses diptychs as a mirroring device through which figures reflect each other in various formal and psychological ways.
Magnus Larsson explores the space in between traditional portrait painting and the contemporary media image. Working in the meticulous and time-consuming medium of oil on canvas, he combines elements from historical portraiture, fashion images, and cartoons. In his Untitled (Portrait) paintings of androgynous figures, Larsson evokes a state of tension between the image of the individual as demanded by formal portraiture and the collectively consumed media image.
Based in Stockholm, Magnus Larsson has had solo shows at Färgfabriken in Stockholm in 2003 (Beckers Konstnärsstipendium) and at the Saltarvet Art Space in Fiskebäckskil, Sweden in 2005 (where he was short-listed for the Carnegie Award). His work has also been exhibited at other venues in Sweden and the United States, and is included in the collection of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, in Peekskill, New York, among other places.
This exhibition has been made possible by The Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana