John Kørner is a Danish painter and sculptor. His exuberant paintings utilise negative space, sweeping gestures, and the application of thin but saturated acrylic colour.
Read MoreKorner's paintings depict bodies teetering in space with props that make them seem comical but that also can symbolically allude to urgent global themes like migration or inequitable food distribution.
He also creates immersive installations of sculptures and paintings in colourfully painted museum rooms.
John Kørner's intensely hued images mingle narrative and geopolitical content with a flowing gestural abstraction, playing watery chroma off against piercing white fields. Despite the works' formally seductive chroma and mark placement, societal and ecological questions are a priority.
Sites of food acquisition necessary for consumption and nourishment are of great interest, as well as how edible commodities are advertised. Glacial and mountainous landscapes with tiny traversing figures, climate change, warfare, fruit displayed in supermarkets, and the collecting of honey and apples are regular themes.
Typical Kørner artworks include Flooded Supermarket (2020), Out of the Darkness (2020), Lamella (2021), Men in a Group (2021), Fire in the Sky (2021), International Glacier (2022), Problems (2006), and The Guide (2006).
Kørner has completed several public murals, including at the Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership, University of Aarhus and at Det Gamle Rådhus in Aabenraa, Denmark (both 2018).
John Kørner has participated in many solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Liquids and Lights, Helsinki Contemporary (2022); Intercontinental Super Fruits, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) (2021); John Kørner: Understanding the Impact of Architecture, Danish Architecture Center, Copenhagen (2021); John Kørner — Crazy Watermelon Shipping, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen (2020); John Kørner — Open the Door, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp (2020); John Kørner: Running Box, Konsthall 16 / Riksidrottsmuseum, Stockholm (2019); and Life in a Box, Victoria Miro, London (2019).
Group exhibitions include Work it Out, Kunsten, Museum of Modern Art Aalborg (2021); The Sky was Bl__ue, The Sea was Blue, The Boy was Blue, Victoria Miro Gallery (online) (2021); Collector´s Room #20: Just Paintings, Deweer Art Gallery, Otegem (2019); and BIG Art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2019).
Kørner's work is held in the collections of ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj; ARoS Aarhus Art Museum of Art; HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Saxo Collection, Saxo Bank, Copenhagen; Tate Gallery, London; The Saatchi Collection, London.
Kørner's website can be found here, and his Instagram here.
John Hurrell | Ocula | 2022
