Asger Dybvad Larsen and Li Gang at Rolando Anselmi

Artists: Asger Dybvad Larsen and Li Gang

Venue: Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Germany

Date: February 8 – April 8, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Rolando Anselmi, Berlin/Rome

Rolando Anselmi is pleased to announce Asger Dybvad Larsen and Li Gang’s duo exhibition in the Berlin gallery, conceived and created as a ‘window project’, a new exhibition format visible from the street. The works by the two artists analyze the medium of painting beyond its specifics, reflecting the drifts of pictorial elements on the edge of their own definitions.

Li Gang’s pieces, for example, approach a state which verges on the sculptural: the thick, handmade canvases of his pictorial cycle, made of interwoven ropes and covered with an overabundance of paint, push materiality and color to the extreme. Li Gang takes pre-existing raw elements and reworks them into new shapes and volumes, giving the impression of zoomed details of unrecognizable subjects. The intrinsic tension in his works stems from the contrasts between opposing materials, combined in a dialectical way: the synthetic and the organic, the mundane and the sublime.

Asger Dybvad Larsen’s body of works, reflect the genesis of its creation process, investigating the pictorial medium in its internal dynamics, in a constant dialogue with themes and traditions of art history. Drawing in particular on post-war minimalist and conceptual strategies, Larsen’s works are characterized by the use of geometric shapes, obtained from cut-outs of canvas progressively sewn together, an element that distinguishes Larsen’s practice. Form, composition, repetition and materiality are the immediate physical factors that assert the autonomy of these works, which communicate their internal logic.

Asger Dybvad Larsen (b. 1990, Fjaltring, Denmark) lives and works in Aarhus, Denmark. Recent solo shows include: Galerie Rolando Anselmi (Rome, 2021; 2017; Berlin, 2018, 2015); Geukens & De Vil Gallery (Antwerp, 2019; Knokke, 2017), Gether Contemporary (Copenhagen, 2019; 2018), Collectors Agenda (Vienna, 2019). Recent group shows include: Galerie Rolando Anselmi (Berlin 2022; Rome, 2020; 2016) Nordic Contemporary (Paris, 2018; 2016), Centre of Contemporary Art (Andratx, 2018), Geukens & De Vil Gallery (Knokke, 2018), Vestjyllands Kunstpavillon (Videbæk, 2018), Pablo’s Birthday Gallery (New York, 2018), L21 (Mallorca, 2017), Huset for Kunst og Design (Holstebro, 2017; 2015), Kunsthal Aarhus (Aarhus, 2017), Galerie l’inlassable (Paris, 2017), Hunted Projects (Edinburgh, 2017), Arróniz (Mexico City, 2016).

Li Gang (b. 1986, Dali Yunnan Province, China) lives and works in Beijing, China. He had solo exhibitions at: Galerie Urs Meile (Beijing, 2020; 2016; 2013; 2011; Lucerne, 2017; 2014; 2011), Galerie Rolando Anselmi (Berlin, 2019; Rome, 2017), Galerie Forsblom (Helsinki, 2017). Recent group exhibitions include: Galerie Urs Meile (Beijing, 2021; Lucerne, 2017), Galerie Rolando Anselmi (Rome, 2020); Contemporary Gallery Kunming (Kunming, 2018), Museum of Confluence (Lyon, 2017), YiShu8 Art Foundation (Beijing, 2016), Louis Vuitton Foundation Musuem (Paris, 2016), Gasometer Kulturzentrum (Liechtenstein, 2016), The 6th Moscow Biennial (Moscow, 2015), K11 Art Foundation Pop-up Space (Hong Kong, 2015), K11 Art Museum (Shanghai, 2015), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2014).