Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen

It is a great pleasure for Galleri Nicolai Wallner to present The Message, an exhibition with new paintings by Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen.

Schmidt-Rasmussen bases his work on his immediate surroundings, the post-industrial, suburban part of Copenhagen known as 'Sydhavnen' and the people who inhabit it. With a keen eye for the inherent surreal and humorous qualities of the landscape Schmidt-Rasmussen presents a view that oscillates between the mundane and the poetic. As images of perfection they only seem to exist in few minutes of clarity before hazing out, the artist capturing their presence in the actual moment or even in the seconds before they happen. In this way the artist is able to paint the local power plant radiating with a sublime light worthy of a Casper David Friedrich or depict a young man standing in a forest with the pose of a Romantic hero decked out in immaculate white sneakers and a zip jacket.

Like the proverbial trip down the rabbit's hole Schmidt-Rasmussen invites us to a world where nothing is as it seems. The transformation of an otherwise bleak landscape into a place of imagination tells about a significant surplus of creative energy and in a way also testify about the artist's own place within the collective space. Schmidt-Rasmussen plays the role of observer but in a game of subjective documentation. The protagonists of his paintings are inscribed in surroundings that both seem familiar and strangely foreign, the landscape slightly altered to bring it nearer the ideal.

As testified throughout the exhibition Schmidt-Rasmussen's paintings merge different styles and artistic strategies. As such it is apparent that the artist's aim is not so much presenting a formalised aesthetic but more expressing a content, tell a story and perhaps draw a line in an otherwise fluctuating world.

Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen (born 1963) has during the last decade been an important figure on the Copenhagen art scene. He has played an instrumental part in the development of Danish contemporary painting and is recognized for his personal approach.

Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen: The Message
New paintings