BJARNE MELGAARD

“Water leakage drawings made in a summit of a Sunday afternoon of creation and destruction.

Always close and somehow very far… The essence of line work and drawings made in the construct of inventing new worlds were old ones never been.

And in its essence just ink drawings on paper.”

Born in Sydney to Norwegian parents, Bjarne Melgaard was raised in Oslo, Norway. Melgaard studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts before moving to The Netherlands in 1991 to complete his studies, first at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam until 1992, then subsequently at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 1992 until 1993.

Since the beginning of his artistic career, Melgaard’s installations have focused on subversive themes, often taking inspiration from various provocative subcultures such as S&M and Heavy Metal music. Melgaard’s current practice, known for crossing disciplinary boundaries, is comprised largely of expressionistic drawings and paintings that frequently incorporate text and a wide array of multimedia components.

In 2000, Melgaard established himself as the “bad boy” of contemporary art with his first solo show in New York, in which he featured sculptures of apes engaged in explicit sexual acts. Since then, his works have become part of the permanent collections of major museums such as the MoMA in New York, the MoCA in Los Angeles, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Bjarne Melgaard has participated in the Venice (2011), Lyon (2013) and Whitney (2014) Biennials. In 2015 the Munch Museum Oslo in Norway presented the exhibition Melgaard + Munch – The end of it all has already happened. Melgaard has continuous exhibitions projects and events around the globe.