Widow

Since the 70s, Ursula Reuter Christiansen has consistently been one of the Danish art scene’s most distinctive figures, and her important and impactful voice has echoed the sentiment that "the painting should be,not allude."Ursula Reuter– a recent recipient of the esteemed Eckersberg medallion – is exhibiting her new works in her solo-show titled Widow, on view at ME contemporary gallery in New Adelgade.

In a series of works, Ursula Reuter explores, examines and interprets change. In her distinctive choice of strong colors we find motifs ranging from butterflies -- change par excellence-- to the dark-clad figures who, in one painting meet us, and then in the next, move away from us -- to the knife that cuts a schism -- to beautiful and poisonous plants which embrace life around us.

Widow is defined by the Dictionary of the Danish Language as "a woman whose husband is dead." A postscript adds the note, "the same as a Widower ."Although it may be tempting to read the exhibition's title as being autobiographical (Ursula Reuter lost her husband, Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen, two years ago) it is not a review of the artist's actual feelings and thoughts about her life companion´s death, but rather, born of the existential experience of life's landmark changing phases. Whether it is birth, death, divorce, we go through life influenced by the people who are close to us - or cease to be close to us. The word widow- "woman, whose husband is dead" defines a person by the absence of the other. In this transition, we are redefined – by ourselves, by friends, family and society.

Through the exhibition we are accompanied by recurring figures: women –undressed and vulnerable – floating on the surface, and women –black-clad and provocative, confrontational or with their backs turned, and mysterious. Not more than an outline they have already slipped between our fingers and are on their way to a new place or anew condition.

The exhibition’s theme is the hallmark of Ursula Reuter’s painting. Strongly affected by her training in sculpture with German artist Joseph Beuys, her painting vibrates in afield between the flat and the object. This is especially true of three works found in the exhibition, ones which are not built of canvas and color, rather, metal grids embroidered with objects. In the the work, titled Homage to the Women in Tahrir Square, a black silk scarf is draped over a frame, which in turn is placed on the easel, rendering the work in a state of transition, the work itself becoming a figure.

The works exhibited in Widow acknowledge that there are no definitive states -- only transitions and eternal change, and as such, the works are change.