Bjarne Melgaard - The End of the Professional Teenager

The Gallery at Sketch is pleased to host the first uk exhibition of Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard, from 12 November to 20 December. This exhibition will utilise various spaces at Sketch, which along with multi-channel animations in the video gallery (featuring separate works made specifically for each time period: daytime and evening), will also include drawings and 3-D works installed throughout the building.the end of the professional teenager, Melgaard’s latest video, combines original animations with Hello Baby, a 1976 film by Marie-Louise Ekman, the legendary Swedish artist/filmmaker. Halvor Bodin of Superlow has animated and compiled all footage in collaboration with Melgaard. The video dissects the phenomenon of prolonged adolescence, which in recent years has masqueraded as a major contribution to culture.The music used in the video installation is from the new album Delirium Cordia by Fantômas [Mike Patton/Buzz Osborne/Dave Lombardo/Trevor Dunn].The inherent nihilism of such subject matter as suicide, gays & m, hiv, extreme bodybuilding, castration, Black Metal, and illegal drug use would seem to position Melgaard as a practitioner of a type of “shock art”. His acts of transgression even led to the censorship of his exhibition at the marta Herford Museum in Germany. Yet ambiguously, most of his content seems at odds with his style.

His drawings are at once both cartoon-like and masterful, as are his fluid paintings and sculptures. Melgaard has also collaborated with major uk clothes label Maharishi, producing a specially designed camouflage fabric and a prototype for a toy known as the Anabolic Warrior doll. Slated for mass production, it supports Melgaard’s belief that toy production also functions as social sculpture, thus furthering his efforts to reach beyond the traditional art market.Melgaard is particularly interested in exploiting the multiple layers of code and meaning that Sketch itself offers, and is thus especially pleased that it is Sketch presenting his first London exhibition.

Melgaard has exhibited in numerous international institutions, including the Bergen Kunsthalle; Stedelijk Museum for Aktuelle Kunst, Ghent; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; marta, Herford, Bielefeld; Kunsthalle zu Kiel; and Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz; as well as being included in Manifesta, Luxembourg; and the Saõ Paulo Biennale.Bjarne Melgaard has been invited to Sketch by Mehrnoosh Khadivi, and the exhibition has been organised in conjunction with Pollock Fine Art.

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Bjarne Melgaard - The End of the Professional Teenager