John Kørner was born in 1967 in Aarhus, Denmark, and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1998. He lives and works in Copenhagen. Themes of labor, economy, and ecology run throughout Kørner’s paintings; ideas of conservation and expenditure, productivity and consumption, power and depletion are performatively engaged through his efficient and spontaneous style. Kørner’s dream-like scenes are loosely informed by European traditions, ranging from Orientalism, Post-Impressionism to Surrealism and Primitivism. His images resonate with psychological fluidity, while his ultra pure colors are charged with a vibrancy that heightens the artificiality of his dramatic spatial constructions. His works are widely exhibited internationally and have been featured at museums such as Hamburger Bahnhof, Tate Modern, and Moderna Museet.

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