Birk Bjørlo is known for his large-format canvases and his bright colour palette. He builds his abstract compositions in layers, keen on holding fast to a work process where he would be able to add and subtract from the painterly material at all times. He builds an inner landscape, a meditative space trying to establish a place for contemplation in a world where events occur at a speed of light. As Bjørlo explains himself his work finds itself on a span between controlling the uncontrollable and letting the uncontrollable take control of him.

X-Ray

Birk Bjørlo’s series of etchings are seen by the artist as a form of x-ray images of his painterly work. Not only the chromatic scale becomes suggestive of this parallel, as the works on paper are printed with a mix of black and silver, but also when considering the technique chosen for the project. Through the painterly printmaking technique of soap ground aquatint, the artist reveals to the spectator his composition’s constructive elements.

The World of Matter

Those graphic works allow the viewer to dive into a world of organic molecules and bacteria a place in the time before humans. Algae, minerals, streams, oceans and cell formations seem to be the main inspiration for the abstract compositions of the painter for his series of etchings. By driving inspiration from the world of natural matter, Bjørlo avoids the need to introduce a central element one that could potentially serve as the subject matter of those abstract compositions. Our eye wonders across the paper moving between the few points of light. The light is the whiteness of the paper, on which the copper matrix, worked by the artist is printed. The freshness of the white Somerset paper brings us to the surface, while the grey tones lead us into the depth of the composition and its darkest points.

Birk Bjørlo, born 1986, Hønefoss, Norway. Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.