Mathias Malling Mortensen

Copenhagen-based artist Mathias Malling Mortensen (b. 1980) has developed a signature style of “cut-out” image production by blending elements of painting and collage with a sculptural approach towards the pictorial plane. His visual language focuses on the essential elements of painting in a way that harks back to the early twentieth century Danish Linien-movement, as well as post-war Italian Spatialism.

 

Often working with vibrant monochromatic colour fields and layered sections of paper or canvas, Mortensen explores how colour, texture and negative space can be manipulated to produce enigmatic and suggestive compositions. The artist's work is grounded in a long-term project of spatial research. Alongside his painting practice he maintains extensive visual diaries consisting of sketch-based and photographic documentation. Often focusing on urban architectural details and studies of various botanical specimens, these visual records provide the formal basis for Mortensen's painterly method. In this respect, Mortensen's work is best understood as a broad investigation of the intersection between space and affect and how complex environmental cues can trigger a broad variety of emotional responses.

 

Mathias Maling Mortensen (b. 1980) is self-taught. Recent exhibitions include: