Anders Krisár. Janus

In December, Galerie Lelong presents Janus by the Swedish artist Anders Krisár, who explores the human condition and interpersonal relationships through the distortion, decomposition, and obfuscation of figures in photographs and sculpture. Krisár informs his new work with a darker tone and greater psychological weight than seen in his previous works. Janus opens to the public on Thursday, December 14 at 6 pm, and the artist will be present.

Focusing on family relationships, Krisár’s interest lies in past experiences and memories—the links and disconnects between the two, how they shape the human psyche. Krisár named his new exhibition after the god of gateways. A symbol of transition, Janus often represents the middle ground between childhood and adulthood. A series of sculptures in Janus explore the duality of these stages. In one work, material representing Krisár's skin and that of his brother's are woven together in unsettling harmony. Another sculpture of two facial casts—one made of heated metal, the other of beeswax—has Krisár's visage literally deteriorating from the proximity to his mother's. This sculpture is contrasted by a set of magnetized facial casts that depict Krisár being pulled towards his mother. Using materials that intrinsically repel, attract, and destruct, Krisár presents a darkly candid commentary on human relationships.

The exhibition will also feature new photographs from the Flesh Clouds, a series continued from Krisar’s first Lelong exhibition. In the series, amidst a setting rendered in high detail is an amorphous haze of a figure. The figure is actually Krisár and others, naked and in motion, captured in an extended exposure time. Mysterious and evocative, the images speak of collective experiences and an uncertain sense of reality. In writing on Flesh Clouds, Iris Müller-Westermann, curator at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, notes that Krisar “searches for the invisible behind the visible, and the visible behind the invisible.”

Anders Krisár lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, and he has recently shown work in solo and group exhibitions at the Norbottens Museum, Luleå, Sweden; BildMuseet, Stockholm; and 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. His work can be found in museum and corporate collections worldwide, including the Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York; Progressive Collection, Cleveland, Ohio; and Hasselblad Center, Stockholm.