FREDERIK KLØVE JACOBSEN

Ny Munkegade 74 // baggården // DK-8000 Aarhus C

facebook.com/artbyfkj // frederikkloevejacobsen.tumblr.com // frederik-k-jacobsen.dk // frederikkjacobsen@mail.dk // + 45 4083 4232

2014

By Henrik Broch-Lips, art historian and art critic

It is mainly symbols and fi gurations derived from the American underground culture, which

Frederik Kløve Jacobsen uses in his pop-art inspired paintings. Thereby they seem different from

the remaining, Danish contemporary art. In Kløve’s versions of art in the 21st century, Tom Waits’

shabby Frank-fi gure trudges out the door, the alcoholic cult writer Charles Bukowski is still hanging

about in the bar – or the Statue of Liberty is going down with the American fl ag.

Kløve Jacobsen’s expressive joy of painting and disrespectful, confi dent, cultural “hacking” remind

you of the American picture- and cocaine junkie Jean-Michel Basquiat’s imaginative paintings from

the 80s. The black artist hero exceeded the limits laid down by visual art and made graffi ti-inspired

paintings, which immediately fascinated Andy Warhol, the king of pop-art.

Less radically than Basquiat, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen also presents intense hacker-paintings. They

contain explosive outlets and are often populated by images of blinded fl ies, giant egg-shaped

fi gures, cartoon fi gures and black musicians. In his effort to create new and unique samplings,

the Danish artist steals left, right, and centre from the commercial and popular culture’s infi nite

amount of icons.

Armed with cheap spray cans, broad brushes, ready printed fi gures of rubber laminate, adhesive

tape, red iron clubs, and fat, expensive acrylic paint, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen aggressively attacks

the large canvasses that are fi xed to extra strong stretchers. Often with Soundgarden, Nirvana,

White Stripes, Miles David and Sex Pistols as inspiring background noise in the studio.

With inspiration from Jackson Pollock’s drip painting technique, he frequently lays down the

painting in the middle of the process and intuitively throws paint on the canvas. When the painting

is subsequently raised, the aqueous paint runs down the surface and provides the painting with a

vertical direction. Then, the motif is adjusted by adding lines and words such as “INC”, “OXE”, “EXIT”,

or entire sentences as for instance “Jack is resting by the tracks of a past innocence”, which refers

to the child’s innocent childhood.

The pictorial quotations in the expressive paintings are often referential objects such as Betty

Boop and Taiwanese toy cars. Or else the signs are graffi ti tags with a political content, such as the

crown and the saxophonist, which are probably borrowed from Basquiat’s staged rebellion of the

80s. And exactly because the borrowed signs have a special meaning, Frederik Kløve Jacobsen’s

sampling differs from the exhaustive and depthless, post-modern method of acquisition. At least

in the way that it fi nds expression in the American pop- and conceptual art, where the purely formal

quotation is dominating.

The paintings cannot just be assimilated to the well-known discourse of post-modern art,

concerned with the death of the individual and the levelling quality of consumer culture. The

criticism of the controlling art institution presented in the personal paintings is too obvious for

that. Especially since the Danish artist repeatedly inserts a standardized, commercial pictogram

of a snobbish judge in his paintings. A know-all censor who turns his judgemental look on the artist

and on us.

CV

Danish painter/artist

FREDERIK KLØVE JACOBSEN

Born in Aarhus, Denmark, 1972

EXAMPLE OF DECORATION

• Kellers Park, Brejning by Vejle

(5 Star Spa & Wellness Hotel) – for Comwell

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

www.comwellkellerspark.dk

OTHER DECORATIONJOBS

• Gabriel textile factory in Aalborg, Denmark www.gabriel.dk

• AKF Koncern in Copenhagen, Denmark www.akf-holding.dk

• The Dermatologisks in Aarhus, Denmark

• VUC Vestegnen www.vestegnenhfVUC.dk

EXAMPLE OF EXHIBITION

• Galleri Dock 56 in Hamburg, Germany

www.dock-56.de

www.dock-56.de

• Skagen odde naturcenter, Denmark www.skagen-natur.dk

IS CURRENTLY REPRESENTED IN ...

• Galerie Moderne Silkeborg, Denmark www.galeriemoderne.dk

OTHER REPRESENTATIONS ...

• Galleri bn24 in Hamburg, Germany www.bn24.eu

• Galleri Salling in Skive, Denmark www.gallerisalling.dk

EXAMPLE OF ASSIGNMENTS:

• Chosen Artist of the Year 2007 by Aarhus Stiftstidende (Newspaper)

With this award Frederik made two lithographics in connection with artist

and stoneprinter Niels H. Peitersen.

• ”The Last Supper” 2009, for artcollector Poul Jensen (Renovac, advising engineers).

”The Last Supper” 2009, 200 x 400 cm

“The Last Supper” is deposited

at ARoS, Aarhus Artgallery

OTHER ASSIGNMENTS:

• Teacher at Silkeborg Collage, 2012 www.silkeborghojskole.dk

9th and Hennepinn, 2008 // 160 x 160 cm

Projects, 2011 // 170 x 170 cm

Board noise, 2006 // 150 x 150 cm

Rules for Jacks urban loophole, 2007 // 150 x 180 cm

Jims marbles, 2012 // 170 x 170 cm

Blessed privacy, 2012 // 150 x 150 cm

Pinky, 2009

160 x 160 cm

Seed, 2012

140 x 220 cm

Replacement INC.,

2006

150 x 250 cm

Pure, 2009 // 200 x 250 cm

Drain, 2010 // 150 x 220 cm

Brooklyn rose, 2012 // 140 x 170 cm

Jacks lost liberty, 2007 // 190 x 250 cm

Jacks soul chart, 2006 // 160 x 190 cm

Blue note bird, 2012 // 100 x 160 cm

Halo INC., 2010 // 140 x 200 cm

Dive, 2011 // 150 x 170 cm

Fetch the junk yard dogs, 2010 // 140 x 160 cm

Money Men, 2005 // 160 x 190 cm

Eyeball kid, 2012 // 150 x 150 cm

Babel memo, 2012 // 120 x 120 cm

Gas Station, 2013 // 150 x 150 cm

Champ, 2013 // 150 x 150 cm

Uden titel, 2009 // 190 x 210 cm

Pure, 2012 // 150 x 150 cm

Jims crossing, 2011 // 115 x 230 cm

Harvest, 2012 // 170 x 220 cm

All eyes on Jim, 2013 // 150 x 160 cm

Fixed teeth, 2013 // 190 x 200 cm

Para, 2013 // 160 x 160 cm

Blue note rec., 2014 // 130 x 130 cm

Majoun, 2014 // 150 x 150 cm

Salt Peanuts, 2014 // 200 x 200 cm

FREDERIK KLØVE JACOBSEN

Ny Munkegade 74 // baggården // DK-8000 Aarhus C

facebook.com/artbyfkj // frederikkloevejacobsen.tumblr.com // frederik-k-jacobsen.dk // frederikkjacobsen@mail.dk // + 45 4083 4232