March 5 - April 10, 2004
 
It is with pleasure Galleri Christina Wilson opens the first solo show in the gallery by Danish artist, Mette Winckelmann (*1971).  Winckelmann graduated from the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2003.

Mette Winckelmann’s abstract hard-edge paintings do not represent a continuation of the modernistic tradition, in which the non-figurative painting is often associated with a masculine encoding.  Quite to the opposite she uses the sign of masculine art only to constantly take it apart again by means of contradictions.  This is achieved in one example by a stringent and strictly geometrical painting, but then in sensitive pink colours.  In much the same way she uses the fabric as a sort of “intermediate place”, where the composition of the fabric object into strict geometric shapes lends the soft, traditionally feminine, material a masculine aesthetics.

The works also relate to the gallery as a concrete physical setting.  In one example the openings of the gallery space are mimicked by the sizes and shapes of the works.  In another work a whole exterior wall is more or less copied and moved to middle of the gallery floor.  By this transposition and transformation of a real physical environment, Mette Winckelmann breaks up the room and challenges the traditional view of the room as a given structure.

This breaking up of the room is found also in her treatment of the plane.  Through white areas – presenting themselves as open “holes” in the painting – Mette Winckelmann destroys the flat structure of the painting.  She changes the rectangular shape of the canvas by painting for instance the corners white to blend in with the white walls of the gallery.  Or she will cut out big areas of the fabric objects, making you see the room on the other side.  The colour white is often associated with neutrality or objectivity, but by using the colour in this way Mette Winckelmann reinforces the active role of the colour white in the communication.  The colour is far from neutral, but will be read differently depending on position, context and viewer.
The title “n, m…” refers to the theme of the show: Symbols, decoding and creation of meaning.  By constantly breaking down and maintaining different symbols, Mette Winckelmann investigates the relationship between e.g. the individual and system, the work and viewer, and between socio-cultural elements such as masculinity and femininity.