A painter of erudite, questioning canvases in which topical content is tackled with various degrees of abstraction and metaphor, John Kørner has developed a wide-ranging practice that speaks beyond the boundaries of the painted image to include installations that transform the viewer’s experience of three-dimensional space. Kørner has made a number of works that refer to solar, lunar and geologic time, and how we are transported metaphorically through time and space by an image. In paintings that, notionally at least, correspond with the idea of the rise and fall of the sun or, as here, the phases of the moon, he also comments upon the idea of the picturesque and sublime. Shadows of the Moon proposes the almost sci-fi idea of there being more than one moon, perhaps moving in different directions (the artist cites as a source of inspiration Haruki Murakami’s alternate reality novel 1Q84) and how life, as a measure of time and movement, might change. The simple, graphic language of the work belies the complex nature of its ideas, while the shade of blue and insistent horizontals creates a sense of optimism and calm.

Born in Århus, Denmark in 1967, John Kørner lives and works in Copenhagen. Kørner has had solo exhibitions at institutional venues including Konsthall 16/Riksidrottsmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2019); Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki, Finland (2018); Museum Emma, Espoo, Finland (2018); Brandts, Odense, Denmark (2016); Museum Belvedere, Oranjewoud, Netherlands (2016); Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark (2003, 2013); The Workers’ Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark (2011); ARoS Århus Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2006) and Moderna Museet, Sweden (2005).