Anders Davidsen: gråbynkens ord
GRIMM is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new paintings by Anders Davidsen, on view at the New York gallery from November 7 to December 20, 2025.
In this new body of work, the brushstroke takes on a more open and deliberate presence, especially in the larger canvases, where it moves across the surface with a flickering, tactile quality. The brushstroke becomes a vehicle for atmosphere, allowing light and form to emerge gradually through layers of accumulated gesture. Davidsen’s process is rooted in material sensitivity: sand, clay, and earth pigments some gathered from the fields near his home are mixed into the gesso, subtly altering the surface and guiding the behavior of the paint. As a result, each canvas becomes a site of quiet negotiation, where pigment slips, fractures, or settles into nuanced textures shaped by both intention and chance.
Built up in thin, layered applications, the paintings convey atmospheres of muted luminosity. They evoke transitional states of light, twilight, afterglow, the threshold between day and night, where the world is suffused with both clarity and dissolution. Horizons, clouds, and celestial forms like the sun or moon act as anchoring presences within the composition, shaping a liminal space of subdued, earthy light. Much of Davidsen’s process is spent adjusting these elements, shifting their scale and position to achieve a sense of internal tension within the image.
The artist’s rural surroundings inform both the materials and sensibility of these works. Since relocating to a farmstead with his family, Davidsen has immersed himself in the local landscape, attuned to its seasonal shifts and tonal subtleties. A recurring influence is the plant mugwort, abundant near his home and long associated in folklore with the moon, dreams, and protection. Introduced into the studio both as physical material and symbolic presence, mugwort situates the paintings within a broader dialogue between myth, nature, and embodied experience. The works also mark a turn toward restraint. Moving away from the densely worked canvases of previous exhibitions, Davidsen embraces compositional simplicity as a form of depth. As he notes, “in that surrender there is clarity.”
The paintings emerge from an already felt sense of connection, an embodied reverence for landscape and light. They grapple with the way perception and sensation are shaped by natural forces, and how those outer conditions weave into inner experience. Through their balance of earth, light, and gesture, the works invite sustained contemplation, offering viewers a quiet resonance with the cyclical and material rhythms that shape both the world and the self.
About the artist
Anders Davidsen (b. 1987 in Mariagerfjord, DK) lives and works in Knebel (DK). He studied at the Danish Royal Academy from 2017 to 2023 in Copenhagen (DK).
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; and BFA exhibition, Danish Royal Academy, Copenhagen (DK) in 2020.
