Finnish artist Axel Antas is showing at CHART 2019 new photographs, sculptures and drawings. 

A new large scale photograph called 0.1ha taken in the Danish forest Gribskov is part of the installation at CHART. The photograph is an outcome of a work produced in June 2019 as part of the Nordkystens Kunsttriennale 2019 (North Coast Art Triennial) in Denmark. The photograph depicts an area of the forest with a horizontally flat structure that frames an area inside the forest. The area inside the frame corresponds to each Danes private forest area if all public forest would be divided between each inhabitant.

Other works at CHART include works from the series Lost to Sight, Kaleidoscope, Tactile Echoes and Contemplation. All the works are considering the impact of humans on nature and our emotional and physical relationship to it. The works use different methods to replicate natural phenomena or objects from nature in an attempt to try and understand and relate to it emotionally and physically. Both digital and analogue capturing, rendering, printing and casting techniques have been used to create the works. Antas is interested in the cross over and merging of traditional techniques such as collotype with current ones, such as 3d printing.

The series Lost to sight is using 3d rendered birds that have been declared extinct together with casts of the artists close family hands.

The photographs from the series Kaleidoscope are taken in Mexico of migrating butterflies. These landscape photographs are incorporated with works produced in the studio as a response to the phenomena of mass migration.

The floor will have parts of trees that have been cast in layers that mimic 3d printed objects. The growth rings of the trees have been turned into layers. The work is called Study of a tree, where the different parts are placed in a random formation on the floor.

The drawings in the show are taken from the Contemplation series which depict forest scenes that are partially covered by circular shapes. These shapes obscure the centre point in the drawing while they function as a focus area for the viewer. The title of the series both nods to the viewing of the work and the making of the work. 

The multidisciplinary artist Axel Antas (b. 1976, Finland) lives and works in Finland. He studied at The Nordic School of Art, Kokkola, Finland (1997), before taking a B.A. at Goldsmiths College, London, UK (2000). Most-recently he completed the Villa Snäcksund Residency Program, Pro Artibus, Ekenäs, Finland (2016). 

Recent solo exhibitions include Long Player and Format, Malmö, Sweden (all 2016); Long Player, Sinne, Helsinki, Finland (2015); Natural High Frequency, Galleria Heino, Finland (2014); New to nature, Rokeby gallery, London UK (2011); and Geometry of Place / Obstucted Views, Hippolyte Galleria, Helsinki, Finland (2010).  

Select group exhibitions include the North Coast Art Triennale in Denmark and past exhibitions include Volta Basel;  Green Land, Kerava Art Museum Sinkka, Kerava, Finland; From Heino With Love, Helsinki Art Museum, Finland; Alchemy Film festival, Hawick, Scotland; and Vienna Contemporary, Vienna, Austria (all 2016); Sato – Gumbostrand Konst & Form, Sibbo, Finland (2014); Force of Nature: Picturing Ruskin’s Landscape, Millennium Gallery, Museums Sheffield, UK (2013); Dark Hours | Fixed Space, & Abet, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (2012); Reflective Shadow, Ordrupgaard Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark; In Arcadia, IMT Gallery, London, UK; and The Drawing Room, London, UK (all 2011).  

His work is featured in public and private collections including: Heino Art Foundation (Helsinki), Helsinki Art Museum, Houthoff Buruma (Netherlands), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), Pro Artibus (Finland), Saastamoinen Foundation (Finland), Wihuri Foundation (Finland) and the Zabludowicz Collection (London). 

Axel Antas will be participating in a talk titled “Photography as Sculpture” in conversation with Danish Artist Adam Jeppesen on Saturday 31 August from 14.00 – 14.45 at Charlottenborg.