Afternoon at the Fringe

About

Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present Danish artist Julie Nords first UK solo exhibition entitled Afternoon at the Fringe. Since completing her education at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2001 Nord has received tremendous national success with shows at AroS-Aarhus Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and Mogadishni gallery to name but a few.

Julie Nords ink drawings and paintings have achieved critical significance due to their exploration of a surreal universe. These scenes appear familiar to us through our recollection of childhood literature, a land of fairytales and fantasy. And yet they are darkly resurrected from this period of innocence appearing almost apocalyptic in their kitsch-gothic reproduction. Nords interpretative works thus create a space between the unquestioning innocence of youth and the cynicalawareness that develops from maturity. Still the works remain inherently fictional due to Nords play on proportion and caricature style. The viewer is lured into a false sense of security then shocked by the newly sinister scene. The effect is one of entrapment simultaneously captivating and disturbing. Nords drawings are thus the effect of conjuring a nostalgic past poisoned by the unsettling reality awoken to in adulthood.