VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Anya Tish Gallery presents the exhibition Bjorn Basen: Tainted Tales.Opening Reception for the Artist Friday, February 18, 6:00 - 8:30 pm. Exhibition on view through March 19, 2011.

Anya Tish Gallery is delighted to present Tainted Tales, the debut US solo exhibit of one of Norway’s leading young artists, Bjorn Basen, whose exquisite paintings explore the paradox between themes of decadence and virtue. Tainted Tales features two series of works: Taffel , inspired by Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Prism, referencing Emile Zola's ‘Germinal’, that depict an extravagant but depreciating world through meticulously painted landscapes of broken bourgeois porcelain, allegorical shadows, diamond encrusted mining caves and hidden passages of text.

The Artist Writes:  "The subculture, whether contemporary or past, gives the opportunity to remove yourself from the common world and immerge into a society that suits your needs better. The subculture can be everything from the urban underground-life in the mega-cities of today to the secret life of the aristocratic society of old Europe.

My work introduces the concept of subculture into a personal mythology both visually and thematically. A mythology based on a decadent and deteriorating world, in which I treat the ceremonies and extravaganza of the nobility and bourgeois-society of the western world."

Bjorn Basen was born in 1981, in Eggedal, Norway. He lives and works in Oslo, Norway