Anette Harboe Flensburg
Hotel Delfin

28 August – 3 October 2009


It is a great pleasure to be able to present Anette Harboe Flensburg's second solo exhibition at Galleri Christina Wilson, this time in our new premises on Esplanaden.

The title, Hotel Delfin, is taken from the work of the Japanese author Murakami, in which the "Dolphin Hotel" plays a central role. Murakami's elegant alternation between everyday scenes and more dream-like tableaux is a source of inspiration for Anette Harboe Flensburg, as is the idea of the hotel as a setting or metaphor for many worlds brought together in one place.

Anette Harboe Flensburg has long shown an interest in the idea of the architectural space as motif. Her interest, however, is not in specific spaces as such, but rather in the relationship between a remembered space and a physical space, which she herself creates. Walls and floors may be emphasised by being covered with patterns, while doors and window apertures may open onto (romantic) natural surroundings, or provide glimpses of other rooms with different atmospheres and tableaux.

For the exhibition Hotel Delfin, Flensburg has created a number of new works in which this theme of space and border is softened, perforated or temporarily maintained by draped curtains which tempt the observer and threaten to be drawn aside. A ghost of perspective remains in the pictures, but this time merely with hints of walls, floors or ceilings. The reflections cause everything to coalesce, while the metallic surfaces that reflect the room create illusions of openings and other rooms to enter.

The exhibition adds many new elements to Flensburg's work. The gentle and dreamlike elements have been replaced by something rather more powerful and merciless. The two-dimensionality of the picture surface is challenged and distorted, while the relationship between abstraction and recognisability has been strongly shaken up. Where the windows opening onto nature of the earlier images provided a sense of wide expanses, these paintings have a feeling of claustrophobia about them, as though you were below decks in a boat in rough weather.

Anette Harboe Flensburg is one of the artists who has made an impact on the Nordic art scene in recent years. In 2003, she was awarded second prize at the Carnegie Art Awards for her series of pictures entitled "Reception Rooms". In 2008, she held a major exhibition at Brandts in Odense together with Bjørn Poulsen, and another at Gallery Andersson Sandström in Stockholm. She has worked on several decorative projects, the largest of these for the Supreme Court in Copenhagen.