Rasmus Nilausen

NoguerasBlanchard is pleased to announce the fourth chapter of Paired histories in our space in L’Hospitalet. Continuing the experimental curatorial programme developed over the last few years, this season of programming is overseen by Joaquín García Martín, founder of the former gallery garcía | galería. García proposes a (further) look at the artists showcased by the gallery between 2012 and 2020 in Doctor Fourquet street, Madrid, and proposes relations between the artists and literary figures and works.

The work of Rasmus Nilausen (Copenhagen, 1980) never loses sight of the history of Western painting, which he has researched in depth. Whether from a theoretical, technical or iconographic position, Nilausen has paid special attention to tradition and the commonplaces or topoi of the different pictorial genres as a way of renewing and updating this language, which is fundamental to art in Europe. All this was already particularly clear in his work on the still life, supposedly the most humble of the genres of painting.

Following this line of work, this exhibition considers a similar approach to landscape: that element that literally moves from the background of the painting in the 14th century to take centre stage in the 19th century. At the same time, a new sensibility was gaining strength in the viewer’s contemplative act until it took over the leading role in the fruition with two new terms that are still valid today: the concepts of the beautiful and the sublime.

Rasmus Nilausen has used Immanuel Kant’s 1764 book Observations on the Sentiment of the Beautiful and the Sublime as a guide, almost like a manual that has been giving him the clues and steps to follow. Along the way he has come across the other themes that have characterised his production: the accident, irony and humour, the vicissitudes of language, the weight of history and the conditioning factors of the artist’s work in the studio.

Rasmus Nilausen is a graduate of the Universitat de Barcelona (2010), where he has taught painting since 2019, and Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2011). From 2017 to 2018 he was a research fellow at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.
He has had solo exhibitions at Overgaden and Christian Andersen, Copenhagen (2019) as well as Tranen (2014); Team Gallery, New York (2019); and garcía | galería, Madrid (2018, 2014, 2013). Some recent group shows at institutions include Notes for and Eye Fire, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, MACBA (2021), Painting: Ongoing Renovation, Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid (2021), and Across the Sand, CentroCentro, Madrid (2020).

Joaquín García Martín was born in Madrid and studies Art History at the UCM.
He has been part of the DOMÉSTICO collective from 2000 to 2008.
As a manager, he has collaborated with a large number of contemporary art institutions, both public and private.
In 2012 he founded garcía | galería that will run until its closure in 2020.
He is currently conducting the series of podcasts of interviews with current Spanish creators “Hablar normal y corriente”.
Recently curated the exhibition “Cuestion de Ambiente” at CentroCentro, Madrid.