Whoever has played the delicate game consisting of striking crystal glasses will recognize the particular vibration, the resonance which seems to last forever following the piercing yet distant noise of the initial strike. If one hits again, a new sound will place itself above the previous vibration and settle into the created sound space. Let us imagine that this game should go on for a long time and we should find ourselves with a complex composition where the isolated sounds would meet, juxtapose, create oppositions and mix. Some would powerfully impose themselves, whilst others resonate in the distance. It’s a sensitive and fascinating game as we know the sound’s point of departure – the simple contact of the finger to the glass yet the effect carries a long way – elsewhere.

Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke’s new works are composed of individual strokes of colour, superimposed, interlaced or suspended, punctuating a white space at once surface and infinity, foreground and background. The strokes are placed with tangible energy. Some are large and powerful, others are fine and transparent, each has its own vibration, its own luminosity still they echo with one another. Thus the tones, whether they are light, dark, fresh or acidulated, establish a form of filigree, whose particular delicacy and the importance given to the white “void” represent a turning point in the work of the artist. It’s as if the silence of the white had imposed itself within a universe where the sound of colours had for a long time been more intense.

Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke has mainly painted in an urban context however her recent paintings were created in an altogether other environment: the result of an invitation from The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut which allowed the artist to work within the isolation of a forest dressed in winter. Perhaps, this peaceful setting with its intense luminosity of foreground tree trunks and a less explicit misty background triggered the evolution in her work.
Whilst the expression has altered, the material form of the paintings remains unchanged: the artist still uses very fluid acrylics with oil paints applied with a brush or paintbrush on a surface of poster paper mounted on canvas. Narrow panels come to exist individually or in juxtaposition and combinations of stretchers are assembled bit by bit. Freedom and vast openness towards the possibilities created in the process of painting itself lie at the heart of the artist’s work. She ‘plays by ear’, her research stems from total dynamism with regards to colour, direction, energy, space and final format.

The coming exhibition of Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke (1967-….), her fourth at the GALERIE MARIA LUND (2004, 2005 and 2006) lies within a successful career path initiated at the ENSBA (1988-1993) by Pierre Matthey, Jan Voss and Claude Viallat and the Navajo Indian, Joe Ben Junior.
Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke’s work has been the subject of many exhibitions in France, Switzerland, the United States and Denmark, her country of origin – also in galleries (Galerie Suzanne Tarasiève, Galerie Véronique Smagghe, Galerie Zürcher, Galerie Weinberger, DCA Gallery, Galerie Proarta and Galerie Frédéric Storme) and in the institutions – Galerie Municipale de Vitry (Vitry prize winner in 1999) and the Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad (Paper revisioned). Many articles have been published in the press (amongst others Connaissances des Arts, Nouvel Obs, Politiken, Jyllandsposten and Børsen). A radio program on the station France Culture was dedicated to her (with an interview by Marie du Bouchet in Etats d’art in March 2004).

In 2007, a catalogue was published covering the last ten years of Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke’s work. 

• As of 5th June 2008 Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke’s new works will be visible on the web site of the GALERIE MARIA LUND: www.marialund.com
• PUBLISHING: a leaflet will be published for the exhibition with a text by the art critic Peter Michael Hornung.
• OPENING: Thursday 12th June 2008 from 6pm to 9pm, the artist will be present.
• The exhibition ends on Saturday 2nd September 2008.
• The gallery will be closed from 27th July until 25th August 2008 – both days included.
  

For further information about the  availability of visuals, please contact :
GALERIE MARIA LUND     48 rue de Turenne     75003 Paris
Tuesday-Saturday 12-7 pm
ph : (33) 01 42 76 00 33    cellphone : (33) 06 61 15 99 91    fax :(33) 01 42 76 00 10
e-mail : galerie@marialund.com     www.marialund.com