Anat Ebgi is pleased to announce Aloof Periwigs, a solo exhibition of new work by Norwegian artist Constance Tenvik on view at 4859 Fountain Ave, November 12 – December 17. This is the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery and in Los Angeles. A public reception will be held Saturday, November 12 from 5 – 8pm.
In 2020 Tenvik was approached by a theatre in Norway about designing the sets and costumes for an upcoming production of Amadeus. Originally performed in 1979, the play gives a fictional account of the lives of rival composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. She commenced research and became 'obsessed with the true life of Mozart,' drawn in particular to understanding mischaracterisations around his mythic contemporary status as a young genius and influential composer versus his reputation as an outcast and eccentric during his lifetime. Tenvik spent countless hours reading biographies and private letters, eventually making a pilgrimage to Vienna and Salzburg preparing for this job, which, in the end, she did not get. Instead she took her defeat and disappointment and turned it into a chance to explore new creative directions and return to her artistic roots in installation and performance.
Aloof Periwigs presents the culmination of Tenvik's vision, research, and 'fangirling' about the life of Mozart. Works range in media from paintings to soft sculptures and costumes. Welded steel sculptures, reminiscent of props and mannequins, transform the gallery environment into a stage, placing viewers among the 'actors,' activating a thousand imaginary scenarios. Tenvik upsets expectations of object and subject, bringing both 'the cakestand' and 'the chef' to life. Playing with notions of artifice and reality, she refers to these sculptures as 'understudies,' stand-ins for the real thing. The exhibition examines performativity through costuming, character, and reinvention.
Meanwhile, Tenvik's paintings expand upon the scene. She nods simultaneously to Baroque drama and decoration while embracing an exuberance and optimism in her fluid brushwork. Taking creative liberties, Tenvik embellishes the play's narrative; by bringing in friends (including many Angelenos) to the studio to "play dress up" and sit for these portraits, she erases boundaries between her subjects and life, art, and performance. The use of wigs and costumes lends a seductive playfulness and eroticism to the exhibition. Tenvik veils and reveals emotional truths about human nature and our relationship to excess through celebrity, gossip, and madness.
Constance Tenvik (b. 1990, London, UK) received her MFA from Yale University School of Art in New Haven, CT and BFA from the Academy of Art in Oslo. With a multi-disciplinary approach spanning sculpture, performance, textile work, costume, painting, drawing and video work with an exuberant aesthetic, Tenvik is a creator of worlds within worlds in immersive installations. Solo exhibitions include 56 Henry (New York), Astrup Fearnley Museum (Oslo), Kristiansand Kunsthall (Kristiansand), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Loyal Gallery (Stockholm), Prosjektrom Normanns (Stavanger), Fortezza Vecchia (Livorno), Deli Projects (Basel). Group exhibitions include Château du Feÿ (Bourgogne), Abrons Art Center (New York), Carl Kostyal (Malmö), Tidenes Krav (Oslo), and Charlottenborg Kunsthall (Copenhagen). Her work has been collected by institutions including Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; The National Gallery, Oslo, Norway; Gullringsbo Konstsamling, Stockholm; and AMMA collection of art, Mexico. Tenvik lives and works in Oslo.
Constance Tenvik (b. 1990, Oslo, Norway) received her MFA from Yale University School of Art in New Haven, CT and BFA from the Academy of Art in Oslo. With a multi-disciplinary approach spanning sculpture, performance, textile work, costume, painting, drawing and video work with an exuberant aesthetic, Tenvik is a creator of worlds within worlds in immersive installations.
Anat Ebgi was founded in 2012 and has since grown to represent a wide array of established artists and emerging talents of international recognition with locations in Los Angeles on Wilshire Blvd. and New York City on a landmarked block in Tribeca. The gallery focuses on presenting an ambitious program of museum-caliber exhibitions and performances, such as our recent, expansive historical survey show commemorating the 50th anniversary of Womanhouse in Los Angeles. Our mission is to showcase artists from multiple generations and backgrounds to address diverse and historical perspectives within the broader context of contemporary culture including the global representation of pioneering eco-feminist artist Faith Wilding and the artist Estates of Tina Girouard and Gloria Klein.
Works by gallery artists are part of the collections of American museums including LACMA, MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMOMA, MOCA Los Angeles, The Hammer, The Getty, Studio Museum in Harlem, ICA Miami, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Tufts University Art Galleries, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Speed Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Blanton Museum of Art, ICA Philadelphia, Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, and the Yale University Art Collection. And international museum collections including Rufino Tamayo Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Moderna Museet, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, X Museum, Beijing, and K11 Art Foundation. The gallery has participated in such selected fairs as Art Basel, Switzerland, Miami Beach and Hong Kong; Frieze Los Angeles, London, and New York; The Armory Show; and The Art Show organised by the ADAA.
Anat Ebgi gallery joined the Art Dealer’s Association of America in 2023.
