Henrik GodskDenmark

Henrik Godsk‘s (b. 1975 in Hjørring, DK) paintings depict tightly composed interiors and human figures, all of which seem to be aesthetically simplified by the use of geometrical forms. These powerful images are reminiscent of Russian avant-garde paintings and evoke the radiance and sensuality of Paul Klee’s color schemes. The artist described color as “the place where our brains and the universe meet.

While Godsk holds an academic MA in Art and Literature from Aalborg University, his contemporary studio practice remains visually tethered to form, restriction, and history, gracefully blending deep stylistic nods to twentieth-century modernists like Cubism, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Amedeo Modigliani with frameworks borrowed from medieval church murals, Renaissance portraiture, and the bold color schemes and geometric patterns of traditional fairground attractions. His geometric, flat portraits frequently feature enigmatic and androgynous human figures or creatures set against minimalist, flat, or highly structured stage-like interiors.

This in-betweenness is also exhibited in both the abstract qualities and the individual distinctiveness of his paintings. The discretion inherent in these tight compositions reveals tensions between the figure, the space, and the surfaces, which are carried by an old school color palette.
Godsk creates expressions and intense presences, which appeal to the viewers’ emotions. The artist is illustrating the mechanisms of the imagination by trying on and verifying universally recognized painterly techniques and succeeds in finding new paths in which to develop this genre.
In this way, he asserts his own claim to art history and painterly possibilities.

As a member of the Danish Association of Visual Artists whose work has been backed by grants from the Danish Arts Foundation, Godsk is globally represented with prominent solo exhibitions in London, New York, Paris, and Cologne and Sydney. His work is housed inside several major public and private art collections, including the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, the Rothko Museum and the City of Aalborg in Denmark. Godsk currently lives and works out of his studio in Northern Jutland, Denmark and is represented by Ruttkowski;68.