Any given material or medium has a built-in resistance or obstruction. For artists, this is often, what stimulates the artistic process in terms of form, and where they challenge the boundaries of the material's ability.
It´s with much pleasure we can celebrate the exhibition “THE TABBY FROM THE RAISED BED” by Anne Mette Larsen. This major solo presentation with new works marks her 60th birthday, 40 years of practice and her first solo show with the gallery. Anne Mette Larsen is a weaver, and her resistance is the loom. This universal apparatus has its own logic, grid structure and set of dogmatic rules. All the exhibited works are created using the simplest method “tabby” - also called canvas, in a double-weave technique, where up to 3 layers of thin hand-dyed paper and silk yarn are woven. The yarn intertwines, swaps places and Larsen´s formal grid compositions are abstractions of a classic twist pattern as you find in everyday tablecloths.
The floral motif, which is an underlying theme in the works, is a homage to the artist´s mother, who passed away in 2020. The flowers, which grew in her garden, were moved to Larsen´s own garden and have, during their bloom in the spring and summer, been a source for reflection and inspiration. The varying colours and love for her mother were brought into the artist´s studio and manifested in form.
With her sublime sensuality towards color and composition Larsen's oeuvre is influenced by the Bauhaus artist Anni Albers (1899-1994). The Norwegian artist and feminist Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) has also been of important inspiration; Ryggen was the first female artist to represent Norway at the Venice Biennale in 1964. Significant contemporaries include the American artist and author Michelle Grabner (1962), who the gallery exhibited in 2012. Grabner is known for appropriating checkered and abstract patterns from everyday textiles to paintings and other materials.
Anne Mette Larsen lives and works in Denmark, and she graduated from Aarhus Academy of Art in Weaving and Painting in 1999. She has exhibited extensively and is currently participating in the Scandinavian exhibition “Travel as a Tool”, which ends its tour this year at The Tønder Art Museum in Denmark. Larsen has been awarded numerous grants and prizes and is represented in important collections including The New Carlsberg Foundation, The Danish Arts Council & Designmuseum Denmark.