John Kørner

With lightness of touch and painterly dexterity, John Kørner explores his medium’s fundamental duality – its physical presence and its descriptive powers – and the potential for communication or miscommunication that ensues. Kørner’s Problems – oval or egg-like forms that appear in his paintings and as sculptures – allude not to specific problems per se but to the nature of problems as they emerge and are comprehended in the world. They act as metaphors for the human condition and trigger questions about representation, knowledge, or faith – fundamental existential issues or those that allude to specific world events. The accelerated pace of contemporary life is a conceptual touchstone, drawing on ideas of altered states and the sublime in nature while investigating the aesthetics and codes of sport, consumerism and leisure. Kørner’s work ranges across formats and scales, travelling through art historical tropes and pictorial languages. The social aspect of the viewing experience is of particular interest to the artist, who sometimes shows his work outside the traditional confines of the gallery and creates installations in which elements of theatre and performance add to a sense of collective experience.