Anders Davidsen’s captivating paintings trace the passage of time using seascapes as a foundation from which he explores the effects of atmosphere and light. Working from memories of time spent near the ocean in all its expanse, images emerge from a setting sun or rising moon resting on the horizon. Varying-sized seascapes are pinned up around his studio, individual experiments into the endless amalgamations of light, air, and water. Completing his paintings sequentially, each canvas is a fusion of inner and outer worlds, a reflection of these quiet moments of contemplation.
Anders lets his colors vibrate, not through the shimmering qualities we usually associate with oil paints but through his immense sensitivity when it comes to the way he makes his pigment breathe on his surfaces. This somewhat crass and vibrating dryness is not unlike the beauty of a fresco, which has aged through the centuries with some of the pigments faded and with cracks in the plaster. These works can serve as a container for a life lived; the cracks hold onto time, and the sunrise and the sunset are, for me, the signifiers of birth and death.
– Anton Munar, July 2024
As a student at the Danish Royal Academy from 2017 to 2023 in Copenhagen (DK), Davidsen developed his distinctive approach to working on linen, building his paintings from the depths of an undercoat of weather-beaten brown. Multiple layers of oil paint are then applied directly from the tube in thin, dry layers, pressing the pigments into the tinted chalk gesso. Davidsen then scrubs and wipes away the paint to reveal reflections on the water’s surface as the paint dries. This meditative process is a race against time, akin to the tension between the power and peacefulness of changing sea tides.
The luminosity of Davidsen’s works is not drawn from the glistening quality of oil paints, but rather from this vibrating dryness, as his pigments fade into one another. Somewhat like a fresco, the beauty of his canvases is grounded in their aged appearance, recording a moment lost to time itself. Davidsen is careful not to overwork his surfaces, so colours dance lightly across the textured linen, ebbing and flowing like undulating waves. Seasonal variations are created through the application of deep reds reminiscent of hazy and humid summer mornings, or via muted, softer tones suggestive of a crisp winter’s fog. Standing before his canvases, both large and small, viewers are reminded of their own memories of observing a sparkling sea, a spiritual experience that reminds us to slow down and appreciate the mesmerising subtleties of the natural world.
Anders Davidsen (b. in 1987, Mariagerfjord, DK) lives and works in Knebel (DK). He studied at the Danish Royal Academy from 2017 to 2023 in Copenhagen (DK). His work has been exhibited in the US, the UK, Switzerland, Portugal, and across Denmark.
Davidsen’s solo and group exhibitions include Sowing in half-light, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) in 2024; Bernheim x ADZ Gallery: Group exhibition, Bernheim, Zurich (CH) in 2024; Voices in silver, Painters Painting Paintings, Hertfordshire (UK) in 2022; Evening Flower, ADZ, Lisbon (PT) in 2022; The Lurid Season, M+B, Los Angeles, CA (US) in 2022; Mythic materials, Formation Gallery, Copenhagen (DK) in 2022; Leva, Arcway Nightlands Connector, Copenhagen (DK) in 2020; BFA exhibition, Danish Royal Academy, Copenhagen (DK) in 2020.
