Born Odense. Denmark, 1966. Lived in Denmark, Switzerland and England. Presently lives and works in San Francisco.
Exhibitions
2008 Fort Wayne Museum, 2008 Biennial: Contemporary American Realism, Fort Wayne, IN
2008 Manifest Press, Manifest International Drawing Annual 2007 exhibition-in-print
2008 Manifest Gallery, Selections from the Drawing Annual 2007, Cincinnati, OH
2007 Bonhams & Butterfields, 11th Annual Art for Aids, San Francisco, CA
2007 Berkeley Art Center, 24th Annual Nat. Juried Exhibition, Berkeley, CA
2007 Hillyer Art Space at International Arts & Artists, Northern Lights/Nordic Visions, Washington DC
2007 Prince Street Gallery, NYC
2007 Union Square Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Big Deal, Benefit Auction at SOMArts, San Francisco, CA
2006 Marin Society of Artists, Nat. Juried Exhibition, Ross, CA
2006 Ben Shan Galleries of William Paterson University, “Connections", NJ
2006 Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Semi-finalist, Washington DC.
2005 Springer?Croke Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2005 Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2004-6 Dolby-Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Artisans, “Realism 2004”, Mill Valley, CA
2002 Atelier Galerie, Gstaad, Switzerland
1996 Leicester City Gallery, "Strange Imaginings", Leicester, UK
1993 Charnwood Museum, "Miniatures", Loughborough, UK
1989 Koldinghus, “Kunsthaandvaerkerskolen, Final Show”, Kolding, Denmark
Grants and Awards
2008 Honorable Mention, Fort Wayne Museum, 2008 Biennial: Contemporary American Realism
2006 The George Sugarman Foundation Grant
2006 3rd Prize, “Conncections”, Ben Shan Galleries of William Paterson University, NJ
2004 Award of Excellence, “Realism 2004”
Education
1980 Classical Drawing Classes, Funen Academy of Art, Denmark
1989 B.A. in Illustration & Design at Kunsthaandvaerkerskolen, Kolding, Denmark
Some thoughts on painting
Life has always appeared rather abstract and absurd to me and painting is my way of making sense of it. The opportunity to examine and penetrate the surface of people and things is something I find fascinating in realist art. Just what is it that we perceive as real? I am intrigued by my discoveries, every time I sit down to paint I see something new or I see it in a new way. The model as an individual is both a direct source of inspiration to me and at the same time a medium to convey my own feelings and states of mind at the time. I think most of all I am interested in re-creating life on the canvas. Although my painting style is realism, there's a great deal of imagination involved. In between sittings I work a lot from memory and imagination. I like to think of the work as a sort of puzzle where the final outcome doesn't necessarily have to be in a certain way or even have to carry a real likeness to the person more than it has to feel right. I might move an eye or the mouth back and forth countless times, as I am never sure what I want to express before I see it painted. So the portrait goes through many transformations of expression before I find my way.
The concept of time also plays a factor in my work. The meticulous process and organic development of a painting provides feedback to my perception. These methods uncover subtleties that if I had worked in a faster manner, might not have been revealed.