Jan Larsen
With a show of colourful, cool, catchy Neo-Pop, American pop-sensation Jan Larsen captures the contemporary American experience in all its grit-and-glory. The Harvard- and Oxford-educated artist makes his Asia debut with his “Young Americans Tour” at Singapore's UltraSuperNew Gallery at 107 Rowell Road.
Co-presented with the artist's New York gallery HG Contemporary, the exhibition will run from July 4th –31st July, with a special 'Come, See, Play' Party on Friday, 13th July from 7pm.
The show is a playful and colourful take on the American experience and a reflection on the direction the country has taken, and invites guests, collectors, American ex-pats, and art lovers alike to play on the artist's new interactive sculpture while they reflect on the freedom, fun and entrepreneurial spirit of the USA.
“The Young Americans Tour is a meditation on America – the good, the bad, and now, unfortunately, some of the ugly,” says Larsen. “But the America I know is open, honest, inclusive, hard-working, and egalitarian, a land of opportunity where dreams are articulated and achieved, and where every neighbor is a friend or potential friend.” The artist’s three-year meditative and expressive journey through the American experience has led him to describe, record, and reflect on what it feels like to be an American in 2018, at home and abroad. This is expressed by his Jasper Johns-esque oil-on-linen American flag, his Rothko-esque ‘pixelated fabric’ digital colourfield works, his interactive sculpture ‘Speaking Terms’, his carefully-chosen “word-work” koans, and his light-hearted mediareferential work. Larsen’s bright, bold colours are both meditative and expressive of the exuberant energy that is the “American way.”
In line with his reflections and assertions on the character of the 'real' America, Larsen, HG Contemporary, and UltraSuperNew Gallery have begun dedicating a portion of sponsorship and sales proceeds from the show to legal-aid charity RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a 501(c)3 US nonprofit that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugee families in Central and South Texas, along the United States' Southern border with Mexico. As his home country grapples with competing visions of its past and its future, Larsen’s is a bright, young, optimistic voice for change.