COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - It is with great pleasure that we announce the first solo exhibition of Finnish artist Esko Männikkö at our gallery. The exhibition Harmony Sisters features a series of close-ups of animals: horses, cows, monkeys, chickens and dogs taken on farms and in zoos around the world.  On exhibition through 10 May, 2008.
 
Esko Männikkö's photographs from the 1990es of people, houses and landscapes from his native region in northern Finland became his great international breakthrough. Of later series which have also won international acclaim, Mexas is worth mentioning - a series of works featuring portraits and landscapes from small towns in southern Texas entirely populated by Mexican immigrants.
 
The works are at the same time anthropologically documented pictures, and simultaneously steeped in - and referring to - classical portraits and landscapes. Esko Männikkö often presents his photographs in used wooden frames, in different stages of wear and tear, and it gives the pictures a timeless, almost painterly quality.
 
In Esko Männikkö's works there have always been cause to explore the abstract details: the way a wall meets a window or the way the plaid of a shirt interacts with the background. In the series Organized Freedom (1999-2005), a series of pictures consisting primarily of worn Finnish doors, Männikkö chose the detail himself for the first time, and directed full focus to the abstract elements. The works in the present exhibition, Harmony Sisters, can be viewed as a continuation of this preoccupation with the abstraction, as an in-depth exploration the abstract detail itself.
 
We are proud to announce that Esko Männikkö (born 1959) has just been awarded the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008. The exhibition The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008 is showing until 6 April at Photographers' Gallery, London. In 1995 Männikkö was named Young Artist of the Year in Finland. The same year he caught the attention of an international audience with his participation in “Campo” in Venice. Since then his works have been shown in places such as Ruimte voor beeldende kunst, NL; Millesgaarden, SE; Kunstmuseum Bonn, DE; MARCO, ES; Kusthalle zu Kiel, DE; Tate Liverpool, UK; Mannheimer Kunstverein, DE; Brandenburgische Kunstsammlungen Cottbus, DE; Shanghai Art Museum, CN; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, ES; Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, IT; KIASMA, FI and Moderna Museet, SE.

From 23rd to 27th April the gallery will take part in the MACO art fair in Mexico. This year we will be showing works by Birgir Andrésson, Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Mads Gamdrup, Superflex, Ed Templeton, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Jone Kvie, Martin Bigum, Matthew Ronay, Miriam Bäckström, Olaf Breuning, Tom Sandberg and Torbjørn Rødland.NILS STÆRK

NILS STÆRK · CONTEMPORARY ART · VAT: DK-20382872 - NJALSGADE 19C · 2300 COPENHAGEN S · DENMARK

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