Gardar Eide Einarson : 'Tokyo Underworld' at Nils Stærk

Saturday, 09 September 2006 11:55

Copenhagen, Denmark - We are pleased to invite you to Gardar Eide Einarsson's second exhibition at Nils Stærk Contemporary Art, until 7 October, 2006.

This is the Tokyo Underworld seen through Gardar Eide Einarson's eyes: ten black and white paintings without any recognizable visual references to the Japanese gangster milieu.  Typical of Einarsson's work is that there is much more activity going on beneath the surface than on it.  His work refers the alternative, parallel existences, and in-between spaces in the structure of society and organizations, enabling him to see the official political, economic and cultural systems in a critical light.  Already before you enter the exhibition space, Einarsson's social structure critique - the process of including and excluding - is made obvious as the viewer passes through the artist's unique iron construction based on American pawn shop doors.  The paintings are titled after each of the ten chapters from the book Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting, a gripping account of American Nick Zappetti's life as a self-declared mafia boss in Tokyo.  The final element to the exhibition is a crude, home-made black hood – the basic, universal form of self concealment.

Gardar Eide Einarsson (1976) lives in New York. He was trained at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts in Norway, and at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, as well as in the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art/Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York.  Einarsson has exhibited throughout most of Europe and the USA in recent years, with his most recent exhibitions at Statements Art Basel; Swiss Institute, New York; Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles; Team Gallery, New York; Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussel; Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Wrong Gallery for the 2006 Whitney Biennal, Whitney Museum, New York; Kunsthalle Bern; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; The 9th International Istanbul Biennial; National Museum of Art, Olso; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam og PS1, New York.