Magnus Pettersen (b. Råde, Norway 1983) lives and works in Copenhagen. He graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and received his Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art in 2011 (professor Thomas Locher).
Magnus’ investigations into a geometrical rhetoric of cosmology, into models and grid-systems is a search for meaning which is not defined in a concrete way. They operate as visual patterns and role models. The coherence of the model, which stands for something undefined and of the grid, which is never neutral, stands for communication or visual communication and information. The visual power of the grid which is largely representative of modernity is also mystically charged, forcing the viewer to acknowledge that we deal just as much with physicality, logic and science. Simultaneously the grid provides us a possibility to get rid of illusions, fictions and narratives.
Pettersen’s solo show Mind in Matter just opened at the Peter Amby Gallery (Copenhagen, Denmark) in March 2013. Other solo exhibitions include: 2012: ” Parallel Worlds (the world as it is and the world as it could be), Not Quite, Fengersfors, Sweden; “Collapse”, 2 man show with Rasmus Mygind, Peter Amby Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2010: Components and Connections, 2 man show with Maria Lenskjold, Q, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Selected group exhibitions include: 2013: FOKUS , Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2012: Something is taking place, Another Space, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2011:AFGANG2011, MFA Degree Show, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark; Anstrøg II, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, Denmark; Thisted Biennalen, Det Ny Kastet, Thisted, Denmark; 2010:MUDshow #2 – ((There`s no Place like Home)), Oslo, Norway; ”WE REDEFINE WHEN WE COME OF AGE 1976-1987”, Toldkammeret, Helsinoer, Denmark; 2009: Art Forms in Human Nature, BKS Garage, Copenhagen, Denmark; Forårsudstillingen, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark; Goldener Kentaur, Münchner Künstlerhaus, Munich, Germany; Thisted Biennalen 2009, Det Ny Kastet, Thisted, Denmark.
www.magnuspettersen.net
Pettersen’s 3 month residency (April-May 2013) is supported by the Danish Arts Council
