No Money - No Honey

OLE AAKJÆR
NO MONEY · NO HONEY SOLO GALLERI OXHOLM COPENHAGEN SEPTEMBER 2016

THE CANNIBAL · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM
OLE AAKJÆR
NO MONEY · NO HONEY SOLO GALLERI OXHOLM COPENHAGEN SEPTEMBER 2016

LIVING WITH THE NATIVES · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM
NO MONEY NO HONEY
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I MAKE UP her thoughts and attribute motives to her. I add sorrow to her
and infuse her with courage and strength. Fragility. I make up a life. Reaction
patterns. Put her in situations that only I know. She rises from the paper and
speaks to me without words. A nod of the head. A glance. A posture. I understand
her. And I don’t...
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WELCOME TO MY WORLD · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM

THE UNKNOWN GUEST
AT A FUNERAL
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THE CENTRAL MOTIF of my paintings is almost always a woman. That said, I
also do paintings of men and children and flowers and animals. An all sorts of
other things. But the woman is the most typical motif, and why is that?
First and foremost, I am fascinated by the woman. Her beauty and mystique.
Who is she? What is she thinking of? She looks at me. We meet.
She is the unknown guest at the funeral. She is a passenger in the train. The
woman in the parking lot. Your mistress. She is the judge of the ill-fated trial
who will shortly deliver the judgment on your life . She is the last one you
meet on your way to the scaffold. Her eyes. Her knowing look. She knows
who you are. She knows your story. Your pain.
I love her bones. Her ankles. Mouth. Eyes. The shape of her head. The colour
of her cheek. The small twitch of her eye. The elegant style of her hair. Her
dress. I love it all. Adore it. Desire it. Want to own it. Make it mine. She is the
one you will never have. The one you thought you had but didn’t. She is the
idea of how everything could be.
I guess the woman is basically the reason why you can even be bothered to
live this boring life. She is the emotional challenge. The driving force. The
highlight. She is the beauty. The colours. She is what you so much want. She
is placed in the middle of the universe – right where the heavens open and
you see the cosmic light. For the very first time. The feeling of eternity in a
raindrop falling to the ground. She is what you will die for. She is worth killing
for. But also the reason you don’t want to die. Not right now. You want more.
She is everything. Your darkest days. The abyss. Passion. Joy. The most intense
moment of life.
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IT’S MY GARDEN · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM

THE CHINESE WOMAN
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WHEN I get lost (which actually happens quite often – I throw away some two
out of three paintings), I always return to a certain Chinese face. Here I can
regain my footing. It is a blank and expressionless face. Like a piece of white
paper that can be filled out in an endless number of ways. This is where I create
the woman. This is where everything starts.
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A: NO MONEY NO HONEY - CHINA EDITION B: BLIND EXPORT C: EXPLODING NINJA D: STAGGERING GLOBALITY E: CHINESE INFATUATION F: SORRY! YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THIS WORK OF ART IS COMPLETELY WRONG - ALL DONE IN INK AND WATERCOLOR - PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

SHADOW HUGGING · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM
VICTIM OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM

THE WELCOME / THREE WOMEN AND A BIRD · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 180 X 152 CM

FEMALE OBSERVATIONS · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM
FINALLY ALL ALONE AT THE HOTEL DE L’EUROPE VATIONS · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM

JUST LOOK AT THE WOMAN
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»When looking around at contemporary art, you find nothing that looks
like Ole Aakjær’s art. With his peculiar, graphic style he is completely his
own – but more than that. He does not deny female beauty or the attraction
of her life story, he does not put it into another context where it is used to
something else and does not portray her sexuality per se. Those are not his
errands.
There is simply no distance nor irony in Ole Aakjær’s female portraits – they
are honest portraits of what he sees in the individual woman. And that is why
they stand so strong – they are naked and vulnerable, and normally you are
met by their gaze and forced to relate to their story. There is nothing you
need to know in advance about his art nor his female figures. You just need to
look. Look at the woman.«
By Connie Boe Boss
Psychologist and art blogger at coboboblog
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LIQUID SEDUCTION · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 115 X 152 CM

BEOGRAD
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»Once our train stopped in Belgrade. Outside the train windows teeming with
children who begged us for alms. Most of us Interrailers were quite young and
none of us had much to donate, so our contribution was quite modest - a packet
of biscuits or the like. Still remember their sad eyes«
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Ole Aakjær
HOTSPOTS · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM
BEOGRAD · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 60 X 70 CM

CHOSEN LIMITATION
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THE ARTIST has to turn the world upside down. He has to reverse life and
explain death. The artist has to step in where everybody else falls short. As
when the brain scientist tries to interpret love as a mental illness. A condition
of unbalance. The overproduction of adrenalin and happiness endorphins. A
psychosis or loss of self-control. Or when your banker tries to explain to you
the value of sense and moderation. When that happens, it is necessary for
the artist to step in. With words, colours and actions that define heaven. The
immaterial. Feelings. The basic components of the delightful dizziness you long
for. The scent of the air that keeps you going…
Love is actually a really good example. It is obviously impossible to define
scientifically. Love is most easily described and felt in a simple pop song. That
is just the way it is. The artist knows that the colour of love is red. Or yellow
or blue. Or green. He can’t prove it. He just knows it. And you know that he
is right.
All of this means that in principle, the artist can do what he wants. He has an
enormous freedom to act. Which can be quite frightening. And that is exactly
why it makes sense to have some dogmas for my artistic work. If the field is
chalked a bit too narrowly, it is easier to explore things into depth. I think
many artists have gained that experience. And this is where the woman gets
into the picture. She is the frame of my artistic explorations. My chosen limitation.
My space. My entrance. I constantly feel that I am moving deeper and
deeper into something central when I paint these faces. It is in the face of the
woman that I find the gateway to what I want to explore. The soul lives in that
face, and it is the soul that I want to explore.
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WOMAN WITH HAT · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

I AM THE WORLD · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM
FLOWER TATTOO · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

DISTRACTIONS · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 35 X 50 CM
IT’S COMPLICATED · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

SHOOT ME · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM
GROWTH STRATEGY · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 152 X 80 CM

FLOWER BULL · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM
BECOME SOMEONE · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

THE SILENT MAJORITY
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3 VARIATIONS on the same face .
All done in ink and watercolor on paper - 75 x 105 centimeters
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EUROPEAN BODY TATTOO · 2016 · PAPER SIZE 75 X 105 CM

ABOUT:
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OLE AAKJÆR (born 1962) has been drawing and painting since he was able to
hold a pencil.
Originally, Aakjær’s dream was to work with the cartoon medium. He was
especially fascinated by the experimental part of the cartoon scene that unfolded
in the 1980s. His greatest role models were Jean Giraud (Moebius), Milo
Manara, Enki Bilal, etc.
In the mid- 1980s, one of Aakjær’s albums was accepted by the publishing company
Carlsen who at that time was the leading cartoon publishing company in
Denmark.
Ole Aakjær was later on trained as an illustrator and has run his own design
office since 1992.
Art has always been his inspiration; his way of inhaling life and understanding
himself. He does his paintings in a modern atelier with room for the large
formats, lots of light and a view of the beautiful Vejle Inlet.
He has won a wide range of competitions and distinctions and gained recognition
as an innovator, designer and especially as an artist, and he can look back
at a number of sold out exhibitions.
His works are always performed in watercolor and ink on paper – often in
very large formats.
Previously, he has experimented with acrylic and oil but it is on the turbulent
ocean of the watercolor that he excels.
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CONTACT:
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GALLERI OXHOLM
Pile Allé 25 – DK-2000 Frederiksberg
+45 2341 2333 – kj@gallerioxholm.dk
www.gallerioxholm.dk
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CONTACT: ole@marginal.dk · WEBSITE: www.oleaakjaer.dk
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Printed September 2016