‘We are a part of nature, but do we feel nature is a part of us? How do impressions of nature influence our daily lives?’ wonders Jeppe Lauge, as someone who has been living in the city for a long time. Jeppe goes out into the world to photograph landscapes, cultivated or otherwise. Being out there in nature is a way to see and find the stories of the landscape. Just as people manipulate nature, he manipulates his photos to construct new landscapes in digital collages on his computer. ‘When I see a landscape, I see a complex picture, a shaped space to which we added layers over time. In my work I’m always searching for ways to excavate the layers in order to know how to relate to it’. A painted landscape then arises on the canvas that evokes both recognition and alienation – for on closer inspection, a pine forest proves to be impossibly dense, and a tree turns out to be built up out of countless fragments.
Although the composing of a landscape from separate elements is reminiscent of the method used by painters in former times, Jeppe’s compositions are unconventional. He tells how a diagonal line leads the eye: ‘Your eyes zoom along a row of trees toward the bottom right-hand corner. There’s speed in that. The restfulness of the large area of sky then offers a counterbalance, which makes you put on the brakes.’ With the smaller canvases, he zooms in closer. ‘With those, I’m interested in the contrast of where two elements touch, the line that arises there.’ Here too, excerpts from reality come together in a new image.
• Exhibitions at Galerie Bart: Rewind 2023 • BIG ART 2022 • KunstRAI 2022 • Silent White 2021 • KunstRAI 2021 • Around the Corner 2019.
CV
Jeppe Lauge, born in 1980, in Århus, Denmark, currently lives and works in Kulhuse, DK, having lived in Amsterdam for 11 years. In 2011 he graduated here from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, after two years of Kunsthøjskole in Ærø and Århus, Denmark. Since his graduation, Jeppe has exhibited widely around Europe. His solo exhibitions include REWIND, 2023 and Silent White, 2021 at Galerie Bart. As one sees, 2021 and Somewhere around here, 2018 at Konstanze Wolter e.artis contemporary gallery in Chemnitz, Germany. Other recent occasions include RARITY Gallery in Mykonos, Greece, the OSTRALE Biennale for contemporary art in Dresden and The Pinacothèque in Luxembourg. Jeppe is also represented by Konstanze Wolter Gallery in Chemnitz, Germany.
Jeppe stayed as artist-in-residence for three months at the Tweede Nassau Ateliers and has been nominated for the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2017. His work is included in several collections such as the DELA Art Collection. The collaboration between Jeppe and Galerie Bart dates back to 2012, resulting in various exhibitions and art fair participations, such as PAN 2018, duo exhibition Around the Corner, 2019, and multiple group exhibitions in Amsterdam and Nijmegen.
Artworks
Publicity
2021 •
10.05 Freie Presse Die Reste zweier Welten, by Matthias Zwarg.
2018 •
ARTSCI Magazine issue 1 The Museum of Awe, NASA by Cecilie Var Norsahl.
01.11 De Volkskrant De crematoriumkunst van DELA: werken die schuren en waar je een fijne zucht bij laat, by Bart Dirks.
2012 •
25.03 Lost Painters Appels Gallery: Raquel van Haver, Kim David Bots en Jeppe Lauge.