Michael Kvium - Fools

It is with great pleasure that ARoS once again presents a major solo exhibition with Kvium - this time with the painting series Fools, consisting of around 200 individual 30 x 30 cm paintings of faces from Kvium's recognisable character gallery. The series has engaged Kvium since the early 1990s, and it is a series that he is not yet finished with.

In Kvium's symbol-laden art, we are confronted with the follies of mankind. The androgynous and deformed figures represent a view of humanity that concerns us all regardless of gender, age and social capacity. The Fools series is no exception. With tragicomic and grotesque expressions, the series of paintings stand as uncompromising portraits of the foolish human and our existential living conditions.

The recurring motifs in Kvium's art; the skull, the egg, the blindfold and the lemon, which bitterly remind us of man's measured days, also appear in the Fools series. At eye level, we meet these many faces that invite us into the deepest corners of the human mind.

The ongoing dialogue between artwork and viewer that the Fools series generates will form the basis of the exhibition's architectural framework. The series of paintings will thus be staged as if Michael Kvium's many faces were theatrical actors meeting us on a stage. The inevitable question arises: who is performing for whom - artwork or museum visitor?

C.A.C. Foundation

Knud Højgaard Foundation

Århus Stiftstidende Foundation

Philips

Keflico

Gallery Franz Pedersen