Press Release
ADVANCED VEIL PAINTING
Benjamin Alexander Huseby
29 May - 21 Jun, 2010
Don’t Projects is very pleased to announce an exhibition of Norwegian artist Benjamin Alexander Huseby at the gallery. In addition to Huseby’s analogue black and white and colour photographs, the exhibition will include a sculpture by Rein Vollenga and a performance by Jonny Woo, James/Jeanette Main and Andrew Kerton.
Occupying the centre of the gallery is a life size image titled “Nadja” of a girl, dancing and throwing her head back, her features obscured by shadows, mounted on a freestanding dry wall, almost as a piece of a stage set.
On the far wall, behind the standing image, is a nude portrait of Huseby’s transsexual friend Pia. Portraits of Baby Dee, James/Jeanette Main, Jonny Woo, Andrew Kerton and Nils Bech are all scattered around the room among mirrored brass surfaces in a composition echoing the forms, shapes and colours of the images.
The installation juxtaposes gestures and poses that are equal amounts of fashion and portraiture archetypes, spiritual ecstasy, esoteric movement therapy, slapstick drag and amateur dramatics.
Huseby has said of this group of works, “All the portraits are of performers, (and mostly friends) photographed when not performing for an audience (…) But I guess everyone acts when they are being photographed - so there are no real uncaught moments, which so often is heralded as the 'truth', the ideal in photography. But I don't believe in purity - just energy.“
This is Huseby’s first solo exhibition at Don’t Projects. Most recently his work was part of “Le souci de soi," a group show held at the gallery in November 2009 and an exhibition at London’s Hayward gallery as part of the collective Basso. Also in 2009, he collaborated with artist Lars Laumann on the video “You can’t pretend to be somebody else – you already are” for the 5th Nordic Biannual of Contemporary Art in Moss, Norway.
Born in 1978, in Oslo, Norway, Benjamin Alexander Huseby received his BA from the Chelsea College of Art, London, and his MFA from The National Academy of Art, Oslo. His photographs have been published in Acne Paper, Vogue, i-D, Harper’s Bazaar, Butt, Dazed & Confused, Art Review, 032c, Fantastic Man among others. Huseby currently lives and works in Berlin.
A catalogue titled “Advanced Veil Painting” is published to accompany the exhibition.
