Holger Kalberg
I was looking back to see if you were looking
back at me to see me looking back at you
March 8 to April 3, 2018
In his new series of works, Holger Kalberg continues his belief in the promise of painting as a tool for ideas. He is especially intrigued by paintings that are connected to the concepts and aesthetics of modernism and abstraction, and the formal and aesthetic relationship of both these elements to utopian concepts. The resulting paintings are a combination of art historical and current cultural influences and references.
Kalberg’s works are created through a lengthy process of painting a series of abstract images onto a single canvas. The heavily layered painting is then sanded and scraped to reveal previous layers, creating a cannibalized final image that references collage, the picture plane, and the history of the painter in studio.
Holger Kalberg was born in Germany and currently lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He graduated from Emily Carr University (BFA, 2001) and the Chelsea School of Art in London (MFA, 2007). Kalberg has been shortlisted for the RBC Painting Competition on three separate occasions, and served on the jury for the 2013 award. Kalberg has recently exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the University of Manitoba, the Belkin Satellite Gallery, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. His work is collected by the Royal Bank of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, TD Bank, the Belkin Gallery, and numerous other public and private collections.
