EMMAROSA LIEBGEN & MADS HILBERT

This duo exhibition features the work of two highly talented, promising young artists, both 2nd-year students at the Funen Art Academy in Odense – the painter Mads Hilbert and the multi-artist Emmarosa Liebgen. Pioneering and exploratory, these two young artists push the boundaries of their chosen artistic fields. Take, for example Hilbert’s large-scale work, in which a rectangular painting of nude forms, swathed in a diaphanous, multi-coloured, watery landscape, has been nailed to a triptych of vertical, narrow canvases. The result? A dazzling, latter-day, humanist altarpiece. A Calder-like mobile of exquisite hearts and rings on an undulating, bent wire frame. A robust, metal, tree-like structure cradling a soft, white, ceramic sculpture: those are just two enchanting pieces in Liebgen’s compellingly mysterious universe.

There is no telling where the juxtaposition of their work will lead and what visitors to the exhibition will experience in visual and spatial terms. Glancing at some of their works, they share a certain fluidity – Hilbert’s curvaceous, wavy, dissolving human forms – Liebgen’s melting, morphing vessels and plates. Whether the two artists will explore and exploit those similarities remains to be seen.

Regarding the upcoming exhibition, Liebgen says: “Mads and I have talked a lot about how our works can converse, what preoccupies us and what inspiration we can draw from each other. I can’t wait to see how our works will interact once they’ve been curated in the space.”

Mads Hilbert (DK) (b. 1993)

Hilbert’s practice revolves around investigations of the human form, usually within painting or sculpture, and reflects on questions of figurative and spatial representation. As sources of inspiration from past artists, he names: H.A. Brendekilde, L.A. Ring, Edvard Munch and Jacek Malczewski

Emmarosa Liebgen (DK) (b. 1997)

In Liebgen’s own words: “My art is honest, personal and immediate. I am fascinated by nostalgia, coexistence and ecology.” She draws inspiration from childhood memories and places, the work of her father (a theatre set-builder and prop-maker) and the clichés of the age in which we live.