Location: Denmark
Jacob Gils´ photographs, analogue and digital in origin, embody a strong awareness of perfect technique and composition.
Initiated by a wish to break away from controlled predefined photography the artist employed a distinct technique by transferring Polaroids onto Watercolor paper and a conscious dividing of the photo into multiple fields. The new take on photography let to the unique expression seen in Limit To Your Love. The blend of motive and technique creates an expression that is organic and sensuous to the eye.
The layering of multiples in his other series Movement generates engaging interpretations of iconic structures. Fragmented, draped and distorted they demand the onlooker to not only look at them, but also to get closer and pay attention to the details as they never reveal themselves from a distance.
A first glance the multi-point visual puzzles appear unfocused and shaken, but are in fact many different very in-focus photographs of the same thing selected and carefully layered, so they in the end give us the illusion of being on the go – in movement. The layering often also creates a translucent second shape and results in a photographic style that resembles impressionistic paintings, but at a closer inspection reveals the details of modern photography.
The Dane confronts both Danish photography and in a broader sense Western photography and art. He questions his own artistic allegiance as well a that of the photographic genre and his art represents a social phenomenon that is at the very heart of contemporary art dialogue today. It balances on the edge of reality and dream, the abstract and the realistic.
Awards
Prix De La Photographie Paris (PX3) Third Prize in the Altered Images Competition
Exhibitions
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Solo Exhibition, 2015
Paris Photo LA, May 1-3, www.parisphoto.com
MIA Milan 2015, April 11-13, www.miafair.it/milano/
Photo LA 2015, Jan 15-18, www.photola.com
Fotofever Paris 2014, www.fotofeverartfair.com
Art CPH 2014, www.artcopenhagen.dk
Photo Shanghai 2014, www.photoshanghai.org
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Group Exhibition, 2014.
In the Gallery Copenhagen, Exhibition whit Naja Utzon, 2014
Art CPH 2013, www.artcopenhagen.dk
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Solo Exhibition, 2013
In the Gallery Copenhagen, Solo Exhibition, 2013
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Solo Exhibition, 2012
In the Gallery Copenhagen, Solo Exhibition, 2012
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Group Exhibition, 2011
Photo LA 2015, Jan 15-18, www.photola.com
MIA Milan 2015, April 11-13, www.miafair.it/milano/
Paris Photo LA, May 1-3, www.parisphoto.com
Comming up:
Art CPH 2015, www.artcopenhagen.dk
Photo Shanghai 2015, www.photoshanghai.org
Fotofever Paris 2015, www.fotofeverartfair.com
Work in collections in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Spain, United Kingdom, New York, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, China & Australia.
MOVEMENT
Artist Statement
The focus of my most recent work is the relationship between movement and the built environment. My Multi Shot collection starts with 25-30 photos taken of a familiar landmark on a city street. It’s not until I place these images together, that I can see if the composition is going to work. I hang it up in my home, to see if its good enough to go further with and make a final print.
When I graduated you couldn’t show an unsharp photo. Ideas about photography have changed and it’s nice you can do what ever you like. I think there has been a very big development in educating in Denmark and the rest of the world. You can make an unsharp photo, a pixilated image on the iPhone, what ever you want. Basically here are no rules anymore. For me personally it is important that the technique it is not easy. Maybe its because I like to see an uncontrolled theme in my pictures.
If you ask an artist, painter or musician what they like most about their craft they usually reply, it’s because they can’t not do it – and I feel the same. Taking photos is not for saving the world or anything fancy it’s just for my own sake. I can’t stop doing it. I do it for my personal creative thought process.
“London #14”
