Hans Alf Gallery is pleased to present Anne Torpe’s new exhibition "Resonant Hues".
The new body of work by Anne Torpe (b. 1981, Denmark) ponders daily rituals and feelings of remembrance. Two new large-format group portraits are accompanied by a suite of intimate portraits of Women. Perhaps most recognisable by her soft, elegant colour palette and androgynous figures, this exhibition makes it clear that Torpe is not simply a painter of feminine beauty, but a master of structure and composition who constantly reconfigures her pictorial space to convey complex emotional states.
Painted from photographs, found in vintage magazines or photo albums, Torpe’s paintings seem at first sight to be solely about the behaviour of the Women and the effects of colour and light in the scenes from what looks like intensely private spheres. To spend time in front of the paintings by Torpe, however, is to see them change. Figures and interiors begin to move seamlessly in and out of each other, as each painting seems to be a study in seeing and remembering.
Torpe’s figurative Cubism, her fascination with how patterning can be used to hide things in a painting, to slow down our perception of them, is already evident, leaving no space flat or unattended.
And yet Torpe’s paintings of Women and their interiors are anything but quiet; they sing in a cacophony of colours, visible brushstrokes, dragged or dripping, and sudden soft shadows. We need synaesthetic metaphors to accommodate Torpe’s vision: a whole symphony of impure sounds resonates from her fierce sense of colour. Resonance is derived from the Latin ‘re,’ meaning again, and ‘sonare,’ referring to sound. Literally: to sound again. In the case of colours, resonance occurs when colours vibrate at a complementary frequency. They enrich each other, connect. They evoke feelings of remembrance.
In individual or group portraits, Torpe’s Women are shown in relaxed poses as they capture themselves and their doubles or soulmates. The Women pose in front of mirrors or rest, lounge, read, play guitar, contemplate, daydream. Often naked, and while nudity has historically been associated with vulnerability, Torpe’s women are strong, confident. Whether confronting the viewer with a direct gaze or seemingly indifferent to our presence, Torpe’s Women stand as empowered, driven by their own desires rather than those of the viewer. As if being “just for themselves” has always been their raison d’être.
Having stopped time for a moment, Torpe invites us to participate in unpacking the complexity of details to be found there - in the temporal shifts of mood or emotions; an eyebrow, a faint smile, a hairstyle; in all the small dramas of our everyday lifes.
Anne Torpe (b. 1981, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen. Torpe holds an MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Akademie der Bildenden Künste München. Torpe’s work has been exhibited at museums and public institutions, such as Kastrupgaardsamlingen, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Städtischen Kunsthalle München and Rundetaarn. This marks her third solo exhibition with the gallery.
"Resonant Hues" opens December 1st and will be on view through December 21st.
