Kasper Sonne Denmark, b. 1974

Kasper Sonne (b. 1974 Copenhagen, Denmark) graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation in 2000 and has for the past fifteen years been living and working between Copenhagen and New York. With roots in design and graffiti, Kasper Sonne spent years making large, bold figurative paintings, before turning to abstraction as a way to fully explore the qualities of medium, without being beholden to narrative. In a more recent return to figuration for the artist, the new works manifest an intersection of both interests, as Sonne continues to focus on painterly qualities of color, line, and form, while re-introducing figural elements. His newest compositions often depict expansive and desolate landscapes that grapple with the psychological complexities of isolation and expand individual mental states to the scale of the tectonic.

 

Throughout his practice, Sonne has continuously investigated the way we interpret our surroundings and make sense of the world we live in by purposefully constructing and deconstructing reality. Many of Sonne’s paintings tap into the horizon line as a limiting form. So often used to symbolize boundlessness, for Sonne the horizon is a space of rupture where the sky meets its limit at the sea, a field, or some more recent structure. Within his vibrantly colored paintings, anonymous figures and lone trees (functioning as stand-ins for human protagonists) are placed amid natural and built environments, displaced from both their own world and from that of the viewer.

 

In Sonne’s paintings, the solitary figures are beholden to the structural geometries that surround them. Sonne frequently uses architecture to create a shallow compositional field, creating a sense of theatricality within his works. Sonne’s figures are sometimes depicted from a great distance, imbuing compositions with a sense of melancholia or isolation. 

 

“The source material [of my compositions],” Sonne explains, “is a combination of found images, personal images, and parts I just imagine. I then combine various fragments to create an image. I never paint directly from a photograph, as I’m not interested in depicting reality, I’m interested in visualizing a mood. The new paintings are as much about the large abstract, or at least abstracted parts, as they are about figure and narrative. [...] I want the paintings to have a kind of ‘unstable’ feeling, so there are lots of layers, lots of drips, lots of imperfections. [...] My interests can be identified as a fascination with the destructive elements in man and nature, combined with an overall feeling of displacement and melancholy.

 

Kasper Sonne’s exhibition history includes solo exhibitions at museums and galleries such as Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2023), A Hug From The Art World, New York, US (2019), Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2018), HEART Museum, Denmark (2016), The Arts Club, London, UK (2015), West, Den Haag, Netherlands (2014), Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy (2014); SALTS, Basel, Switzerland (2013), The Hole, New York, US (2013), Primo Piano, Paris, France (2012), SAPS museum, Mexico City, Mexico (2010) and V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2009), as well as group exhibitions at MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels, Belgium (2023), Brigade Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021), Collaborations Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2018), Palazzo Fruscione, Salerno, Italy (2016), Fergus McCaffrey in New York, US (2015); Kunstverein Kolnberg, Cologne (2015), Germany; Den Frie - Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark (2015), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, US (2014); National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy (2014), Centre d’art Contemporain, Clichy, France (2014), Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, US (2014); The Moving Museum, Dubai, Emirates (2013), Gl. Holtegaard – gallery for contemporary and modern art, Denmark (2013), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012), Bass Museum of Art, Miami, US (2011), Museo de San Carlos, Mexico City, Mexico (2008), Seventeen Gallery, London, UK (2007) and Galerie Krinzinger, Wien, Austria (2006).