Untitled (Nike & Adidas)

A work of art mirrors the history of art as well as the time it is made in.  Therefore I have to the best of my ability sought after inspiration from that history as well as my surroundings.

The idea to work with Nike and Adidas haunted me for almost a year before I gave in and decided to do some experiments.

It bothered me at first that the forms represented fashion products and found it too much “pop”.  But after a few experiments I saw the aesthetic possibilities of the forms and did some paintings for two group exhibitions.

One painting I exhibited in ASI museum last year was done in the spirit of the paintings “Cathedra” (that was recently sabotaged in Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam) and “Midnight Blue” by the American artist Barnett Newman.

The painting is untitled (Nike & Adidas) and it was the first time I had the two forms work together in one painting.

Originally I intended to use the same sort of colours Newman used in the paintings, but I changed them when I saw that they did not fit with Nike and Adidas.  I kept the dark blue that covers the two canvases and added florescent colours to it.

The paintings I exhibit in galleri@hlemmur.is are offspring’s of that painting though the experiments are different and are visually more connected to minimalism of the 60´s than to the paintings of Newman.

Each piece consists of two paintings.  One with a Nike form and the other with three vertical stripes that are the trademark of Adidas.  Each frame is constructed to serve the shapes of the forms and florescent colours mixed with more traditional colours create a play between the forms in each piece as well as between all the works in the exhibition.