Gardar Eide Einarsson

Gardar Eide Einarsson (b. 1976) has earned international acclaim in recent years through exhibitions in Europe and the USA. He manipulates existing material and works in a tradition stemming from Pop and Appropriation art. His work is often discussed in connection with so-called Neoconceptualism and artists like Matias Faldbakken, but given that he lives and works in New York, he is also discussed in relation to the young New York art scene and artists such as Nate Lowman and Dan Colen. Einarsson is interested in people who live beyond the bounds of conventional political, economic and cultural systems. He takes recourse in symbols, codes and other phenomena defining group belonging and distinction.

The work included in Rotations #2 consists of six white canvases placed side-by-side, lying on the floor or placed on top of each other in a stack. On each canvas Einarsson has painted one letter, and seen together, they spell outlaw. Einarsson’s works often address aspects of American culture, and in this particular instance it is the idea of the 'outlaw'. These mysterious, lawless figures are a historical part of American culture and protest movements. In several works Einarsson refers to outlaws who seek to incite revolt, e.g., John Wilkes Booth (Abraham Lincoln’s assassin) and Timothy McVeigh ('the Oklahoma City bomber'). Such people, for ideological reasons, oppose government control and take the law into their own hands. One could say they are extreme examples of American ideals of individualism and libertarianism. Einarsson claims to be especially interested in American aspirations of individual freedom. An inspiration for some of his works is the shock he experienced when he first moved to the USA and was confronted with American 'cowboy-individualism'. An American artist who has also created works about lawless figures such as Lincoln’s assassin is Cady Noland, who is also included in Rotations #2 with the work Japanese Cowboys (1991). Another American artist who depicts so-called outlaws is Nate Lowman.

Einarsson has painted O.u.t.l.a.w. (2003) in his characteristic style of black paint on white canvas. The letters are rendered in a recognizable gothic typeface. Also typical for his art is that the letters almost look printed, but black paint dripping down the canvas is a telltale sign of a paintbrush. This gesture can be interpreted as referencing the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. Einarsson has also paid homage to Pollock’s artistic significance in another series of works as well (see, e.g., the Astrup Fearnley Collection’s Unpainted Bronze (fluids) (2008) and Untitled (30-1950) (2008); both were included in Rotations #1). The fact that the canvases are on the floor rather than on the wall can perhaps be read as an institutional critique of the conventional way in which art is displayed in galleries and museums, where an object is named 'art' by the act of hanging it on the wall.

TK