17 January - 8 March, 2009
Lars Bohman Gallery
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JONATHAN LASKER
Recent Works

Lars Bohman Gallery has the honour of presenting its fourth solo show with the American artist Jonathan Lasker. From an international perspective, Lasker is regarded as one of the most distinguished painters in his field of investigating the possibilities of painting after Minimalism, to which his work, which began in the 70's was intended as a response. His works could be described as a presentation of the tools that contemporary painting has to operate with and his method as a continuous

His works are characterised by a patent physical presence. The colour is arranged in lines and grids, coexisting with sketchy, scribbled forms. In the impasto of his painting there is a manifest "thingness" allowing for his works to take command of the exhibition space with physical presence. Lasker shaped his language while studying at the highly conceptual Cal Arts in California in the mid-seventies where painting was considered to be dead. However, by using abstract forms to explore representational space, he came to develop his own language using different elements such as grids, lines, fields and clusters, and came to a contemporary discourse of the relation ship between figure and ground. Without being figurative the works can be read as landscape compositions or interiors, with horizons and forms that are sometimes anthropomorphic. The titles of his paintings such as Art and Authority, An Economics of Desolation or Proof of Identity, are a parallel to the dialectical nature of his works.

In the exhibition is a series of small studies in oil on paper. In spite of their diminutive size (most often 15 x 20 centimetres), they do not come across as miniatures, but rather take command of the surrounding space with impastoed colour fields and forcefully sketched lines. Lasker works with traditional material and techniques, such as oil on canvas, pencil and pen on paper. Included in the exhibition is a series of drawings (2002-2008) that clearly are related to the paintings but nevertheless exploits the casual and immediate nature of drawing. The drawings have almost always the same dimensions (56 x 76 centimetres).

The gallery has produced a short film "Jonathan Lasker in his New York City Studio" that is showed in the lower gallery. The film is also available on our homepage and on ITunes under "Lars Bohman Gallery Podcasts" where all our films about our artists can be found.

Jonathan Lasker is born 1948 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA; he lives and works in New York. He is an alumnus of New York School of Visual Arts, as well as Cal Arts in Los Angeles. His works have been shown in solo exhibitions all over the world; and this is his fourth show at Lars Bohman Gallery since 1991. Lasker is represented in the most important public collections in Europe and North America, as well as in prominent private collections.

In conjunction to the show, the gallery exhibits selected pieces by Evert Lundquist and Hans Wigert – Swedish painters in whose works parallels to Lasker's works can be found.

For further information about the artist, please contact the gallery.