John Kørner – Monography

Press Release:

Roulette Russe has the pleasure to announce a great monograph of JOHN KØRNER, which to date is the most comprehensive publication on the artist. John Kørner (b. 1967) has had important impact on the Danish art scene, and in addition to several exhibitions on Danish soil, Kørner, right now, has his international break through with major solo exhibitions in Finland and Belgium. Kørner combines classical landscape painting with motifs from the an, at times, brutal reality in his imagery where social and political issues materialise as problems of local as well as global character. Kørner’s colourful paintings, sculptures, print making, and installations immerse the reader into the artist’s wide spanning oeuvre.

In the monograph, Kørner is high-lighted as a multi-artist, for whom painting remains the pictorial form in which he has unreserved confidence. In conversation with Marie Nipper, who curated Kørner’s retrospective exhibition Forever Problems at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in 2017, Kørner talks about the topics that have engaged him in recent years and about his desire to express himself in spatial installations that go beyond the limits traditionally defined by the canvas: Often, we don’t permit ourselves to talk about beauty when we talk about things that are dramatic JOHN KØRNER – the most comprehensive publication on the artist or dangerous. Danger and beauty both contain great powers. I consider drama mixed with beauty to be the ultimate statement. (John Kørner) In the essays “The Kørner problem” and “Good and Ill Together” by curator Max Andrews (frieze) and art critic Oliver Basciano (ArtReview) the two reflect on Kørner’s year-long work with the `problem´ as a recurrent figure. For better or for worse, problems are part of life in this world. Problems are essential, for humans as well as for art.