Per Adolfsen
Walk with Me
New York | Tribeca
January 10 – February 8, 2025
“Heaven is under our feet as well as above our heads.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
Nino Mier Gallery is delighted to present Walk with Me, our second solo exhibition with Danish artist Per Adolfsen. Walk with Me features a new suite of works on paper, picturing extraordinary landscapes inspired by the topographies of the Earth he has encountered in his travels through the wilderness. The exhibition will be on view in our Tribeca location from January 10th - February 8th, 2025.
Each work in Walk with Me beckons the investigation of the natural surroundings of humanity and the ways in which humanity has been impacted by, or has impacted onto, nature. This way of working came to fruition from the reminiscence of his teenage walks through the woods, and the more recent desire to abandon the studio as a place of ideation, letting his surroundings take the lead in his visual output.
Spartanly, Adolfsen begins his surreal and grandiose works by venturing into the wild with nothing but pencils and his sketchbook, inscribing all that the earth has to offer from a literal and emotional level. He then returns home, translating the sentiment from his wanderings onto larger scaled colored pencil and graphite drawings on Hahnemühle paper. These impressions, albeit devoid of human representation, become not only a rendition of the sublime natural world, but a self-portrait of the artist; someone who has been introspectively impacted by the world.
Whether it be the snowcapped mountains in Path in the mountains, the crisp and lush garden pathway in Hazy Morning, or the desert canyon passes in Two agaves in a canyon, Adolfsen colorfully portrays the inviting and hostile environments of his travels. Adolfsen’s skillful presentation of seasons changing becomes a synonym for transformations of the self over time, and the emotional toil one faces in a lifetime. Two trees on a mountain hows movement and delineates all forms of mountainous and cosmic matter through fine lines and curling shapes. Using wide swaths of gentle yet prominent colored pencil marks, the joys and sorrows of life in cohabitation become visible.
Through moonlit rock formations, wide open roads, desolate plains, and other settings, Adolfsen explores the aspect of daily life and its everchanging emotional and personal qualities. The masterful and whimsical mise-en-scene of Adolfsen’s compositions narratively conjure forth passages from Thoreau, while referencing painters like Caspar David Friedrich in execution. Walk with Me invites the viewer to journey alongside Adolfsen as he bears witness of the awe-inspiring nuance of the world.
Per Adolfsen (b. 1964 Odense, DK; lives and works in Odense, DK) has had solo exhibitions at Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto, CA; The Anzai Gallery, Tokyo, JP; Sobering Galerie, Paris, FR; Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York, NY, US; among others. Group exhibitions include RHODES Contemporary Art Gallery, London, UK; Knust Kunz Gallery, Munich, DE; Alexander Ochs, Berlin, DE; and Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, DK.