Thomas Øvlisen: Variations in Blue

Øvlisen’s seventh exhibition with V1 Gallery / Eighteen takes its departure in several interwoven ideas and elements. A series of large oil paintings of seagulls in flight, painted on repurposed ping pong tables, basketball backboards, bamboo plywood and canvas; materials that Øvlisen had in the backyard of his studio or sourced from Den Blå Avis – Denmark’s largest listings marketplace for buying and selling used goods. The first work materialized on a ping pong table intended as a birthday present for Øvlisen’s son. The table was broken on delivery and a new table was promptly delivered to replace it. Øvlisen expected the company to take the broken table back and fix it, but it had apparently lost its commercial value and was left behind in his backyard. This act of excess, the symbolic shape, grid and colour of the table intrigued and provoked the artist to engage it as a vessel for art. Painting into his own memories and concerns. Danish maritime art history is our cultural terroir. Ocean surrounds us.

Kilde: V1 Gallery.