Troels Carlsen, Nectar of Ruins, 2023
acrylic on antique anatomical prints, 35 x 26,5 cm
In his collages, Troels Carlsen (*1973) surreally fuses the finest anatomical drawings in restrained gray with brightly colored animal paintings. Each of his pictorial worlds is capable of surprising the viewer anew: Where else do colorful butterflies and strawberries fly around a human skeleton clad in a banana skin, do wild lion heads and bare feet grow out of large zucchini funnels? We encounter animals in Troels Carlsen's works as expressive character figures that interact confidently with the human. Elegantly or casually, they play with the sometimes slightly morbid-looking body parts on the antique prints, sometimes even seeming to dance with them and challengingly inviting us to do so. In elegant compositions, the artist takes us into a cheerful and at the same time cryptic fantasy world, which always oscillates between life and death, culture and nature, history and dream.
