Reality painter 2003

REALITY PAINTER

Written by Janecke Hausken
Translated by Priscilla Martinez

The cities
Jannik Abel returned home to Oslo, Norway in May 2000 after having lived in San Francisco for six years. In San Francsico she studied fine art photography and printmaking at the Academy of Art College. She went on to study painting and art history at the San Francisco Art Institute. The influence of American artists on Abel´s work is obvious, especially when you consider Rauschenberg and Johns. “Studying in San Francisco gave me the opportunity to meet contemporary artisits firsthand (1), and to see their work at the Museum of Modern Art and in various galleries.There are great shows in Norway too, but they cannot be compared to those in the large cities of the USA. It was an invaluable experience.”
But on the question on who has inspired her the most it is the cities, not artists, that are mentioned. In an article written on her show Nature 2001 (2) it states, "The artist foremost relates to the city and its distinct terrain. Her paintings mirror the experience of the city´s visual architecture...The depiction of reality is intergral to Abel´s work. As an artist she communicates the different parts of our visual environment in a novel style. When the viewer observes these paintings , they can look upon their familiar urban surroundings with a new perspective” (3).
New York, Rome and of course Oslo and San Francisco are the main cities comprising Abel´s material of inspiration. This leads me to introduce the background of much of her artwork, the photograph.

Photography
Jannik Abel is foremost known for her paintings. It is less well known that her background is in photography. Her paintings are often described as abstract, yet they are based on reality. For over a decade Abel has photographed city walls, streets, posters, stickers and street art. It is this documentation of reality that is the backbone of her paintings, collages and works on paper. The photos create an archive that is an unlimited source of inspiration and documentation. Lately, this archive has also been used to develop photographic projects. In an interview with Hamar Arbeiderblad, Abel is quoted saying “I always take pictures when I travel to cities, photographs of streets and houses, especially urban decay. Because I am interested in stories, of what was and of what there are still traces of” (4).
Black, white, grey, orange, light blue, rust, silver/metal are colors in Abel´s paintings and photographs, earth tones or city colors as Jannik calls them. “It is hard for me”, she says, “to use colors that are not dominant in cityscapes. If I use the color green which exists mostly in the forest, I feel like I go against what I am trying to communicate. Ironically, I use green when I feel stuck or when I have the need to try something new.” As of today you will not find a painting that is dominated by the color green in Abel´s productions.

Projects 2000-2003
Abel had just completed two projects Body Portaits (5) and Found, Lost, &...(6) when she moved home in 2000. Ever since the start of her studies in 1994 she worked mostly in projects. On the subject she says, ”I like to research themes and go deeper into a single subject. Making a project and not just a single piece allows me to show more than one side of a story.”
Nature 2001, Inter Relations , Street Project I & II and The best collages I never made are all projects made between 2000 and 2003. Nature 2001 was Abel´s first solo painting exhibition in Norway. It was exhibited at Galleri Christian Dam in Oslo in November 2000. Abel wrote in her artist statement "Nature 2001 is a documentation of our urban landscape and the constant change it is going through." Inter Relations is the only project mentioned above that is still in progress. The first two paintings were shown in the show "Norwegian Abstractions" at Galleri Christian Dam in 2002. The titles of the two paintings were Observer and Participant, and they reveal some of what the theme of this project was about. It looks upon the connection between public street signs and personal signe like posters, stickers, gorilla advertising, etc. Inter Relations attempts to depict, understand and present these elements and the influence they have on people living in the urban chaos. Street Project I & II shares the same theme but the medium is works on paper and collages.
In Abel's last project, titled The best collages I never made, Abel photographed posters that had been torn down halfway or been overlapped by other posters or street art. Abel's eye and camera catch pieces of art that have existed for only hours or days. We can ask ourselves, is it the photograph that is the final product? Or is it a mere documentation of a collage that is no longer in existence? The photographs/collages say something about coincidence, identity, change over time, vulnerability and the need to express oneself in the public arena. The best collages I never made is street art at its most interesting because of these elements. (Street Art consists of posters, stickers, signs, writings, etc. that are posted in public. They have no intention of selling something or informing an audience of an event).
In the artist´s statment for Inter Relations Abel wrote, “The personal signs such as posters and stickers and street art is what makes the urban environment personal, they communicate on a human level, they prevent anonymity.” This statement for Inter Relations is also relevant to The best collages I never made. There are clear similarities between Abel´s projects. They focus on the urban scene and document it in a moment in time, they try to understand our surroundings and fight namelessness. They therefore constitute the main topics of Abel´s work over the last three years.
Notes is Abel´s last project in 2003, and will be shown at Galleri Hervold in Hamar in September 2003. This is a more introspective project like her exhibition Paintings shown in Abel´s Art Gallery in

2002. Notes consists of 20 paintings, including the largest she has ever made, 140cm x 280cm. The title of this piece in Norwegian is Samspill which most closely translates to Teamwork in English. If you look closely at the painting you will find the word Avløst, which means Canceled. This creates the phrase Canceled Teamwork which contradicts the meaning of the title. The light in and the title of the painting convey ambivalence in the artist. The painting begins very dark and gradually becomes lighter. At the bottom of the painting you can also read “leave me alone” written about ten times. This is also a contradiction to the title.
As the title of the show Notes suggests, there are a lot of words in the paintings, but some remain without. One is Fire versjoner av sannheten/Four versions of the truth. In this painting you can use the title as a means to understanding the abstractions.
I was once asked to describe Jannik Abel and I said “What Jannik touches either breaks or becomes art.” Looking back at three years worth of work I am glad to see that there are more of the latter.

Words
Sentences, signs and words are distinctive features of Abel´s work. She always uses her own notes, which she transfers to the canvas. She brings her written observations to her studio and sections of them are translated into her paintings. “In her complex paintings you can find letters and words that can give you a hint as to the theme of the paintings. The signs are hidden, but in that way they represent reality in that you have to look to find the limitless secrets behind the hard and often brutal surface” (7).
Words were included in her paintings for the first time in the show Nature 2001. “Abel´s paintings of urban nature are not only nature. They are also filled with meaning and symbolism. These are hidden and partly covered. Standing in front of these cryptic pieces of text you ask yourself what it represents. Is it a personal message? Is it an experience had by the artist? In the aritist´s landscape of experience lie meaningful clues disconnected from their place of origin, creating a maze. Signs left behind become living nature, in our surroundings and in Jannik Abel´s paintings” (8).

Signature & Materials
Abel signs all her paintings on the back of the canvas. When I asked her the reason for this she said, “One of my goals as an artist is to show the artwork, not the artist. And to sign on the back is one of the things I can do to emphasize this. A signature is more than a written name. The fact that I use wide stretcher bars and that I glue and gesso myself is part of my signature. I could make my work easier and buy pre-made canvases, but I like to make something from beginning to end.”
The majority of Abel´s paintings are of square format, something she was used to from her photography background where she used a square negative format with her Hasselblad camera. “The square format is alive, it is not confined.” Abel also said that she finds the square format more challenging than other shapes such as, for example, a rectangle. As do many contemporary artists, Abel uses other materials besides paint. She also uses sand and wax in her work. Wax is often used to make words or letters. The wax is magical because when it dries it becomes transparent. It is almost invisible if not painted over. Abel also uses rust in her paintings. Liquid iron is applied to the canvas, then chemicals turn it into rust. This is not often found in paintings and the material cannot be bought in Norway.
Lately, Abel has also incorporated material found in the streets, like asphalt or textured fabric. I have experienced first hand walking the streets with Abel when she suddenly picks up a rusted piece of metal or a part of the asphalt. Without a word she puts it into her bag. When asked what she found she simply answers “treasure.” Abel also prints these objects through her printmaking press, which makes an imprint on any piece of paper.
To treasure things that other people overlook is another theme in Abel´s work. She extracts details that can be easily overlooked in the chaotic urban setting. You have to look closely to find these clues in her work. The artwork consists of several layers. The surface of the painting is just that, a surface. This and the layers underneath create the entire painting. Add it all up and it is a documentation of stories, history, traces of an existence and constant change. Abel is an artist who not only shows us our environment in a new way, she also is a participant in our urban surroundings. She simultaneously participates and documents our habitat with words, photographs, paint and abstract and concrete visual artwork.

1. Helmut Newton and Sally Mann visited AAC, a long list of American artists visited SFAI, the most famous was Rauschenberg.
2. Nature 2001 was Abel´s first solo show in Norway, Galleri Christian Dam, Oslo 2001
3. & 8. ”Jannik Abel: Nature” is an article written by Stine Beate Schwebs for Barokkminimalism.
4. & 7. Interview with Geir Vestad in Hamar Arbeiderblad.
5. Body Portraits is a photo project that was finished in San Francsico 1999.
6. Found, Lost &... was an installation that was shown at the Diego Rivera Gallery, Abel´s work was chosen in contest of over a hundred other artists.