Louise Hindsgavl / Mediocrity Is No Crime

Galleri Christoffer Egelund proudly presents the third solo exhibition by the Danish ceramic artist Louise Hindsgavl (b. 1973) entitled Mediocrity is no crime.

From a safe distance it looks quite innocent. But take a step closer to the porcelain figurations of Louise Hindsgavl, and you will have an unexpected, and sometimes unpleasant, surprise. Where you would expect cheerful shepherd boys and fair maidens you get complex creatures that lost their innocence long ago. A man with a full-grown paunch and legs of a horse is tearing open the back of an angel rendered helpless by a huge nail through its wings, a milking cow is performing intimate surgery on herself and abstract elements are melting into the deformed beings. Louise Hindsgavl has uncovered new territories within the field of porcelain art where others have since followed. Hindsgavl removes the porcelain figure from the utopian world where it normally resides and makes it take a position in the real world, a place not always so picture perfect.

At the exhibition Mediocrity is no crime Louise Hindsgavl presents two new series including a series of “white pieces” in continuation of the earlier work of the artist. In the sculpture Quiet Please we come across a frustrated doe whose head is that of a bear. She is just about to cut of the nose of her own fawn. Desperation and powerlessness has driven her to this loss of control which is highlighted by the fact that the piece is turned upside down. Another piece at the exhibition shows a human figurine who is on the point of cutting of his own nose for the sake of ideal beauty.

Abstraction occupies a prominent place in the new work of Louise Hindsgavl, and abstract elements seem to attack the figures and show the incomprehensible and the unsaid. In the series Sketch for a Larger Life Hindsgavl takes the abstraction to the next level. In these somewhat smaller and more colorful porcelain pieces it is possible to find reminiscences of the figurative universe of Hindsgavl, e.g. the tree, but other than that abstraction has taken over. The abstract narratives allow the artist to deal with the indefinable and at the same time open her artworks up to interpretation. With this series she reintroduces an element of play and freedom into her praxis, and raises the question: how perfect does it have to be?

With this exhibition, Louise Hindsgavl comments on our eternal search for perfection. Whether it concerns family life, working life or our looks, everything should be done a 120 percent. But such an endeavor has its consequences; stress, depression and frayed nerves. The shiny, clean surface of the porcelain symbolizes in a most delicate way the perfect appearances we are trying to keep up. But if you step closer and scratch the glaze you will quickly find the chaos, insecurity and imperfection hiding underneath.

Louise Hindsgavl graduated from Designskolen, Kolding, DK, in 1999 from the Department of ceramics and glass. She has exhibited widely in Denmark, Europe, the US and Asia since her graduation. She is represented in major collections worldwide including: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, USA, MAD, Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Sweden; Victoria and Albert Museum London, UK; Designmuseum Denmark; Trapholt, Danmark and ASU Art Museum, Arizona, USA. Furthermore, among others, she has received: The Danish Art Foundation work grant of 3 years (2010), Silkeborg artist grant (2010), The Danish Art Foundation grant (2008, 2006, 2004) and The Biennale Award, The Biennale of Arts and Craft and Design (2004).

Galleri Christoffer Egelund cordially invites you to the opening of Mediocrity Is No Crime on Friday the 28th of March 2014. The exhibition will run until April the 19th. Opening hours: Monday-Friday 11-18, Saturdays 12-16. For further information and press photographs please contact the gallery at: info@christofferegelund.dk or at +45 33 93 92 00.