Ted Larsen: Proof of Life
La Galerie Dutko a le plaisir de présenter du 14 mai au 30 juillet 2022 une exposition d’œuvres de l’artiste américain Ted Larsen. Pour la seconde exposition personnelle de l’artiste avec la galerie, une trentaine d’œuvres récentes seront présentées dans l’espace de l’Ile Saint-Louis.
Galerie Dutko is pleased to present from May 14 to Jully 30, 2022, an exhibition of works by American artist Ted Larsen. At the occasion of his second solo show with the gallery, some thirty recent pieces will be featured at Dutko / Ile Saint-Louis.
Born in South Haven, Michigan and raised in the desert Southwest of northern New Mexico, Ted Larsen grew up in a family of artists. This environment led him to train in the Fine Arts as a matter of course. Fascinated by the geological power of the earth, the first part of his artistic journey was as a landscape painter, “Abstract Landscapes" is how he describes those endeavors.
In 2001, following the traumatic events of September 11, he abandoned the critical success of his paintings and moved into an entirely new direction. Deeply affected by this event, he spent several years developing a new way of working. Using surfaces fashioned from pre-painted salvage materials, often from automobile body parts – “non-art materials” as he calls them – Ted Larsen shapes three-dimensional wall objects by applying these surfaces with inimitable colors, nuanced by time, accidents, weather, on wooden substructures. These “Shaped Paintings”, hybrid objects with obvious sculptural qualities, question the concepts of painting and sculpture, and push back the boundaries of distinction.
Exploring the work’s relationship to its space of visibility, Ted Larsen blurs the lines by questioning the fron- tality of the wall hanging traditionally reserved for painting. The small size of these works is also a way of in- volving the viewer, inviting them to get closer and explore their spatiality, as well as the titles given, which, as oxymorons, bring dualities into confrontation and invite reflection.
Ted Larsen supports this artistic research on the legacy of the Russian Suprematists, the De Stijl movement, the American post minimalists and the developments proposed by Non-Objectivity. These influences have in common an attachment to simple geometric forms, the primacy of pure artistic feeling over illusionist representation, and the importance given to a plurality of different perceptions.
About Ted Larsen
Ted Larsen (b. 1964, USA) is an internationally exhibiting artist and Pollock-Krasner Foundation recipient with a BA from Northern Arizona University. The work he creates supplies commentary on minimalist belief systems and the ultimate importance of High Art practice. Since 2001, Larsen has used alternative and salvage materials in his studio exercises.
Ted Larsen’s work has been exhibited widely in private foundations and museums in the US, including the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, The Albuquerque Museum, The Amarillo Museum of Art, The Spi- va Center for the Arts in Joplin, Missouri, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as in over 100 gallery exhibitions. He has received grants from the Surdna Foundation and the Pollock Krasner Foundation, as well as residencies with the Edward F. Albee Foundation and Asilah Arts Festival in Morocco, where he was selected to be the USA representative. Ted Larsen is included in the collections of The New Mexico Museum of Art, The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the Palm Spring Art Museum, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Procter & Gamble, The Bolivian Consulate, Reader’s Digest, PepsiCo, The University of Miami, The University of Texas, Krasl Art Center, Dreyfus Funds, JP Morgan Chase, Forbes, Lannan Foundation, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Inc..
