Emma Kohlmann is an American artist who over the past decade has developed her own visual lexicon made up of vibrant hues and amorphous figures that dance around a quasi-mythological symbolism. The Bronx-born, Massachusetts-based artist is showcasing her third solo exhibition with Copenhagen’s V1 Gallery, titled “Night Thoughts.”
The show takes its title from Edward Young’s 1797 poem of the same name and presents a suite of 30 paintings, including Kohlmann’s largest canvas work to date. Figures, faces and various animals and insects seem to merge with one another from one painting to the next. “Some resemble mad fairytales, others elegant nightmares,” said V1 Assistant Director, Amanda Færk.
Utilizing a rich palette of burnt oranges, chartreuse greens, blushy reds, midnight blues, dusty pinks and purples, Kohlmann uses her smaller interior paintings as a way to experiment across color. From shapeshifting hands that appear like an octopus; hovering faces that reflect against one another within the confines of the canvas; to a myriad of fauna references — Kohlmann’s paintings appear like the cave paintings must have once upon a time — primal, immediate, resonant and enchanting.
Speaking further on the cycle of plants, the artist noted in a statement, “Plant life forces are like people. They have souls like we do. Just enacted in different ways.” Catch “Night Thoughts” at V1 Gallery until February 26, 2022.
Also on view, Peter Chan and Taylor Lee present “Toy Show” at Over the Influence.
V1 Gallery
Flæsketorvet 69,
1711 København, Denmark
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