Balat's new gallery The Pill follows up its inaugural show, Daniel Firman’s Fragment Dimension, with another solo exhibition, this time by Paris-based Danish artist Eva Nielsen. After exploring the themes of reality and perception through neon signs, sculptures and an elephant suspended midair, we now get to delve into a world devoid of humanity through Nielsen’s figurative and abstract paintings on canvas and paper, depicting architectural structures in a state of ruin.
As an art student, Nielsen was more interested in studying spaces and venues than the human figure. “I like the idea of being lost in a venue,” she says, “as well as manipulating and disrupting the venue to assign it the meaning I have in my mind. Sometimes I see places that inspire me and draw me in, and I immediately jot them down on my hand.”
The feeling of being lost that’s so dear to the artist is also inescapable for the viewer taking in the spaces Nielsen has recreated. In contrast to her previous projects, the artist took a risk by choosing to completely reorder the techniques she used to produce the works in New Paintings. Following a creative process she says was “entirely intuitive,” she’s produced works that blend oil painting and digital print techniques with the architectural spaces that inspire her. Nielsen says she first used acrylic paint on canvas, followed by screen-printing to bridge the gap between her painting and her photographs. The resulting works manage to draw the viewer in as they provide clues about the dystopian world we’ll one day leave behind. When viewing the works in the show, you’ll likely find yourself thinking deeper about the damage we do to Earth – and who knows, you might even be inspired to take responsibility and make some changes to help turn the tide…