...out in the open fields, at night, by moonlight, surrounded by wine, and a lavender oil so powerful you could have weighed it out in silver...Amy Yao, Jochen Schmith, Jorunn Hancke Øgstad, and Constance Tenvik
Press release
VI, VII is delighted to announce “…out in the open fields, at night, by moonlight, surrounded by wine, and a lavender oil so powerful you could have weighed it out in silver…” a group exhibition gathering eight works that explore resplendence through the dense and layered application of paint and pigmented materials in various forms.
Painted in Vienna during the height of Covid, Constance Tenvik’s paintings of restaurant life in the Austrian capital, convey a resplendent, convivial energy, and life pulse expressed in visually engaging forms. Figures, dressed in their sensual, evening best, convene as if a pandemic is not taking place.
Drawing further on the notion of luxury and excess, Hamburg based artist duo Jochen Schmith delves into the appropriation of painterly expressions, with one of their mixed media “paint splatter” works (Untitled, 2023). In this piece, splatter marks resembling those from drip paintings are reproduced in silk embroidery before being stitched into a soft cashmere. Here the commodification of artistic labor best
exemplified by the 1990’s craze for painters pants in a “just left the studio” style, is thereby turned back into an artwork, bringing the gesture full circle.
Norwegian artist Jorunn Hancke Øgstad presents a little known side of her practice: a large, and formally complex painting with
fabric dye on a polypropylene sheet (Untitled, 2023). Though she has been experimenting with these works in her studio for the past three years, they remain rare, and this example is the first to be exhibited publicly. Here visitors can see the same dry pigment that she uses to produce her works on canvas, but more luminous and vibrant as it sits on the surface of the plastic sheet.
Three new sculptures by American artist, Amy Yao, made with standard building materials, including plexiglass and steel beams encase varied arrangements of artificial flowers and hand colored silver resin.
The title of this exhibition is a freely edited excerpt from Patrick Suskind’s literary historical fantasy novel “Perfume.”
For further information please contact Ida Møller Engebretsen: ida@vivii.no / +47 482 08 428.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Jorunn Hancke Øgstad
Øgstad is an artist exploring the language of abstraction through sculpture and painting. Using fabric dye, resin and plastics on unprimed
canvas, the artist mimics watercolor, spray paint and print processes, often within the same work, co-opting techniques commonly found in expressionist, street and pop art practices.
Traversing historical periods in art and design, Øgstad finds inspiration everywhere from 19th century spiritual abstraction to the work of female contemporaries. Many of her works feature bleaching and blocking processes which see areas of the works become translucent, thereby letting light through the surface of the work.
Born 1979 in Bærum, Norway, the artist lives and works in Oslo.
Notable exhibitions include Oppgjørets Time, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikkoden; Nye Malerier, Formuesforvaltning, Oslo; and Crocodile Tears at the Kunsthall Oslo, part of Munch on the Move, a series of exhibitions initiated by Norway’s Munch Museum.
The artist’s works are in numerous private collections in Europe and America, as well as the Equinor Art Collection and the collections of Örebro Konsthall, Henie Onstad Art Center and Norway’s National Museum.
Constance Tenvik
With a multi-disciplinary approach spanning sculpture, performance, textile work, costume, painting, drawing and video work with an exuberant aesthetic, Tenvik is a creator of worlds within worlds in immersive installations. Tenvik is drawn towards narratives, colour and exaggerations, while trying to understand human paradoxes. Her paintings are inspired by people, dreams and mythological fragments which interweave in a richly chromatic intricate maximalism. Her scenes show interactions that occur in cities, combining vulnerability with decadence. Born in London in 1990, the artist lives and works in Oslo.
An MFA graduate from Yale School of Art Tenvik’s work is in the collection of Moderna Museet, the Rubell Collection, Norway’s National Museum. A solo exhibition by the artist will open at the Munch Museum in November 2024.
Jochen Schmith
Jochen Schmith is an artist duo based in Hamburg, Germany that has worked together since the year 2000. Their work explores social rituals and public spaces. Particular interest is placed on the way forms of presentation are connected with structures of power and domination.
Their works have been shown internationally at institutions such as Hamburg Kunstverein, Kunsthaus Bregenz and Bundeskunsthalle Bonn.
Previous exhibitions include: JED MARTIN curated by Bettina Steinbrügge at Kunstverein Hamburg; Artists against Aids curated by Yilmaz Dziewior at Bundeskunsthalle Bonn; Andere Räume, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn; Bleibender Wert?, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Certain Arrangements, Kunstverein Braunschweig (2010); News from Nowhere, WCW Gallery, Hamburg.
Amy Yao
Amy Yao is a musician, curator, and contemporary visual artist making work in many different mediums informed by ideas of waste, consumption, and identity.
Born in 1977 in Los Angeles, Yao is a lecturer in visual arts at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Notable solo and two person exhibitions include: AZN Clam, The Power Station, Dallas, Texas; Two Weeks, with Carissa Rodriguez, Indipendenza Studios, Rome.
Group exhibitions include: Sustainable Museum: Art and Environment, Museum of Contempo- rary Art Busan, Korea; Honolulu Biennial 2019: To Make Wrong/ Right/ Now, Honolulu, Hawaii; Ekhaus Latta: Possessed, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Looking Back: The Eighth White Columns Annual – Selected by Pati Hertling, White Columns, New York Hertling, White Columns, New York, NY. Yao’s works are in the collections of the public collections of FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France and SYZ Collection, Switzerland/ Sweden.
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Constance Tenvik, Salzamt as I Imagined It While I Couldn’t Go (Less Parsley, More Drama), 2022
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal, wine etiquette on canvas
255 × 319 cm (100 ⅜ × 125 ⅝ inches)
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal, wine etiquette on canvas
255 × 319 cm (100 ⅜ × 125 ⅝ inches)
Constance Tenvik, Schnitzels Colliding with English Breakfasts at Engländer, 2022
Acrylic, flashe and charcoal on canvas
255 × 319 cm (100 ⅜ × 125 ⅝ inches)
Acrylic, flashe and charcoal on canvas
255 × 319 cm (100 ⅜ × 125 ⅝ inches)
Constance Tenvik, These Pages Printed by Gallimard Didn’t Lift the Spirits Today Either, 2022
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal and ink on canvas
195 × 175 cm (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches)
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal and ink on canvas
195 × 175 cm (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches)
Constance Tenvik, These Pages Printed by Gallimard Didn’t Lift the Spirits Today Either, 2022
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal and ink on canvas
195 × 175 cm (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches) (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches)
Acrylic, flashe, charcoal and ink on canvas
195 × 175 cm (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches) (76 ¾ × 68 ⅞ inches)
Jorunn Hancke Øgstad, Untitled, 2023
Watercolor and dye on polypropylene
207 × 152 cm (81 ½ × 59 ⅞ inches)
Watercolor and dye on polypropylene
207 × 152 cm (81 ½ × 59 ⅞ inches)
Jochen Schmith, Untitled, 2023
Cashmere and embroidery
180 × 130 × 4.5 cm (70 ⅞ × 51 ⅛ × 1 ¾ inches)
Cashmere and embroidery
180 × 130 × 4.5 cm (70 ⅞ × 51 ⅛ × 1 ¾ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
150 × 75 × 11 cm (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
150 × 75 × 11 cm (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
150 × 75 × 11 cm (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches) (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
150 × 75 × 11 cm (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches) (59 × 29 ½ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
120 × 75.3 × 11 cm (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
120 × 75.3 × 11 cm (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
120 × 75.3 × 11 cm (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches) (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
120 × 75.3 × 11 cm (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches) (47 ¼ × 29 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
75.4 × 60 × 11 cm (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
75.4 × 60 × 11 cm (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Amy Yao, Untitled, 2023
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
75.4 × 60 × 11 cm (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches) (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
Artificial flowers, plexiglass, steel, epoxy and glitter
75.4 × 60 × 11 cm (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches) (29 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ × 4 ⅜ inches)
