Bjarne Melgaard
Bjarne Melgaard
Details
Bjarne Melgaard
Edited by Nick Volgerson
Contributions by Bjarne Melgaard, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Glenn O'Brien and Ina Blom
Published by Skira Rizzoli
Hardcover in slipcase, 11 x 13 in., 530 pages
English Language
The first monograph on the world-renowned Norwegian contemporary artist Bjarne Melgaard, whose far-reaching work often deals with complex issues such as homoeroticism, addiction, and AIDS. Australian-born Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard started his career in the mid-1990s with neo-expressionistic painting, sculpture, and installation. Organized chaos is one of his main principles in composition and content. His intense way of attacking the canvas paired with a total control of the line where the brush strokes and splashes of paint meet form a base for an explicit narrative. Covering the entirety of Melgaard’s career, this book documents the artist’s way of capturing the tension of the creative moment, which makes his stylistic role models Edward Munch and Emil Nolde ever present. The variety of dazzling layers in different techniques gives the work a painterly quality that sweeps the viewer into a myriad of colors, forms, and expressions. Liberatory, playful, and unstoppable, Melgaard’s art provides an insight into subcultures that exist alongside the world of normality, and often investigates and pushes the boundaries of societal acceptance. Bjarne Melgaard exquisitely showcases an artist whose variety and complexity of work have been praised worldwide.
About the Author
Hans-Ulrich Obrist is an art curator, critic, and art historian. He is codirector of exhibitions and programs and director of international projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Glenn O’Brien is an author and essayist who has written extensively on the subjects of art and fashion. His world-syndicated column "The Style Guy" has been the style bible for several generations of men. Ina Blom is an art critic and professor of art history at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Olso. Caroline Busta is a writer and the Editor-in-Chief of Texte zur Kunst in Berlin. Alissa Bennett is an art critic, writer, and the director of Team Gallery. Nick Vogelson is an editor and creative director. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Document Journal.
Bjarne Melgaard
Bjarne Melgaard is a contemporary Norwegian artist working in sculptural assemblage. In installations that include paintings, videos, and mixed-media works, the artist explores themes of substance addiction, sexuality, and self-destruction and often employing controversial and provocative imagery. Born on September 9, 1967, in Sydney, Australia to Norwegian parents he was raised in Oslo, Norway. In 1992, he graduated from the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts and went on to study at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 1992 to 1993. He has since had exhibitions at institutions around the world, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2006, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York in 2013, and the Whitney Biennial in 2014. He currently lives and works in New York, NY. Today, Melgaard’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, among others.
