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 SOL KJØK'S INTERTWINED FIGURES
by Donald B. Kuspit ALWAYS SOMEBODY MOVING
by Meghan Dailey SOL KJØK: THE BODY AS METAPHOR
by Jonathan Goodman DREAMS OF POLLAIUOLO
by Jason Franz |
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The wall work in Berlin was made in one week, during which Sol Kjøk lived in the gallery and worked virtually around the clock for seven intense consecutive days. "This performance aspect is an important part of the process for me. It is a matter of testing out the limits of the body and facing the risk of falling flat on one's face," Sol explains to SNITT.
[Translated from Norwegian] "It is expertly done. So dazzlingly accomplished that you all but miss the fact that Sol Kjøk's work also holds existential questions with a full range of feelings, spanning from safety-seeking anxiety and fear, to protective love and joy of life." [Translated from Swedish] Britte Montigny,"Equilibristic Technique and Acrobatics"
Hallandsposten August 12, 2008 |
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"This makes for a kind of conceptual art where the artist directs the action, in such a way that the result reads both dramatic and mystifying. The viewer constantly feels that there is much more to this than a simple juggling with the organic forms of the human body; there are also symbolic accents and even a philosophy of life."
[Translated from Swedish]
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"[...] In one room, visitors stare straight into the eyes of a naked man holding a ball of human beings in his hand. [...] Some of the exhibiting artists come from far away. Sol Kjøk, born in Lillehammer, but now residing in New York City, got a whole room to herself for her drawings, [one of which is] called Waiting for the Sun. "An excellent draftsperson," says Ådne Løvstad as he climbs up a step ladder to tack to the wall a naked man with an intense gaze."
[Translated from Norwegian]
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"[...] So it makes sense that Tower of Babel was promoted as a ritual; we were invited to leave behind the routine of "going to the theater" and float collectively along a rolling river of foreign tongues. Though it might seem all that chattering would add up to cacophony, the end result was an almost musical harmony. Needless to say, I was transported. My storyteller sensed this and withdrew, though not before I got her card. Her name is Sol Kjøk; she's a New York-based artist whose work is very much worth a look."
John Del Signore, "Tower of Babel"
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"At Manifest Gallery, an interesting tension plays out between Boris Zakic's paintings of mostly solitary figures in the outer gallery and the pulsing togetherness seen in Sol Kjøk's drawings just beyond in the "drawing room." One tells us how alone we are, the other what strength and fears there are in groups. Zakic incorporates his titles into his compositions in tall, handsome letters, while the name of Kjøk's show, String of Beads, comes from recurrent appearances of a slender, bright red chain, a visual and symbolic anchor for the drawings. Faultless technique from each artist, in works that keep coming to mind."
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"[...] There is a shared sci-fi quality to much of the work, as it deals with contemporary life. Sol Kjok's ethereal drawings of a congregation of nude, bald women and men forming their bodies into a planetary mass look like a cross between the androgynous representatives of some future race and the randy hippies of Alex Comfort's Joy of Sex. The work is trendy and very now, and gives the sense there are cohesive, shared doings bubbling up from the studios and galleries of Cool Factory New York."
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"Recommended! Galleri 27: Visual Artist Sol Kjøk was born in Lillehammer, but has been working in her studio in Brooklyn, New York City, for the past few years. Her exhibition, which opened a bit more than a week ago, is called Perlestrenger (Strings of Beads). And a contrasting string of beads is what runs like Ariadne's thread through the 30 plus drawings and her monochromatic oil paintings of athletic nudes. The graphite drawings and the icy blue, more plastic paintings are born from a painstaking process: First a performance in the studio, where the artist and other models carry out "acrobatic acts" with climbing ropes and miscellaneous equipment. Next are photographs of these acts, which the artist subsequently uses for collages that she again turns into these virtually classical drawings. The contemporary air of "scenes" and setting and the abstract and often chaotic figure groups make this something entirely different from classical nudes."
[Translated from Norwegian]
Erik Bjørnskau, "Anbefales!"
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"Sol Kjøk is being compared to the Nordic Romantics. In a large loft in Brooklyn, New York, she is working with floating, dancing and intertwining human bodies that are connected by means of a red globe."
[Translated from Norwegian] in "Romantiker"
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"[...] Sol Kjok and Steve Ziebarth take a different tack, and show the human body in reaction to its landscape - whether that is a body in confusion, relaxation, fear or any number of emotions. Each artist's distinctive and skillful depiction of his or her subject intrigued me.[...] Don't miss these talented artists in this thoughtful gallery."
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Julie Bernzot in "Manifest Creative Research Gallery"
Cincinnati City Beat, Feb. 1, 2005 |
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"Kjok's drawings of the human figure recall the work from great past masters such as Michelangelo and DaVinci. Yet, the swirling configurations and dream-like moods bring the art into the realm of contemporary art."
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Jerry Stein in "Manifest is an art gallery -- and much more"
The Cincinnati Post, May 23, 2005 |
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"Sol Kjøk's art is playful and energetic. [...] Then there is a universal strength; a pleasure, a movement in her art that is clear and profound. It is obvious if you spend any time with her creations: Kjøk loves what she is doing. A feeling that emanates through every line, every form, every expression she records with obsessive precision[...]
She conveys detailed information, such as the tension in the muscle, the subtlety of expression in the bodies and the faces, a source of light, the strength of the mind of her subjects, or the three-dimensionality of the form. Then comes the mystery, the merriment, the miraculous newness Kjøk brings to drawing life. She stakes a claim, and sets it straight: drawing, the essence of all art, is of primary import and needs to be reckoned with." |
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D. Dominick Lombardi, " Cycle of Life "
New York Times art critic, 2005
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"Artistas de diversos países se reúnen en Casa de América para ponerse "en el lugar del otro" (...) Madrid. Fotografía, video, performances, cine, documentales, conciertos, graffiti y rap, se darán cita en la Casa de América (Madrid) del miércoles 15 al domingo 19 de diciembre, dentro del Festival Mira!LUBOLO*, Arte y Música contra la esclavitud*, con la participación de artistas de diferentes países como (...) los creadores multimedia como Sol Kjok (Noruega)...La mirada creativa, la idea de trascender la realidad y plasmarla en otro lenguaje, está presente en los dibujos de la sueca [sic] Sol Kjok (...)"
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Mayda Álvares
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"Kjøk (whose work) features whirling tumbles of human forms in a series of drawings (...) also attended school here, and got her Master of Fine Arts in painting at Parsons School of Design. She has previously lived and gone to school in Georgia, Vienna, Colombia, Paris, and Cincinnati, but knew that New York was where she wanted to stay."
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Jenny Sherman, "Painting the Town Norwegian"
Viking Magazine, May, 2004 |
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"Les œuvres que vous me faites découvrir sont admirables [...]. J'espère vous suivre dans votre travail."
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Jacques Derrida, Paris, 2003
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The Swirling series (...) shows both the male and the female body in a flood of different poses and positions. A varied perspective spans single figures captured individually to the entire sheet being filled with human bodies forming a single, massive swirl; muscular, limber bodies at play, athletic games and at battle. (...) Kjøk certainly knows how to render the human body: Such masterly rendition is seldom seen."
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[Translated from Norwegian]
Grete Nordtømme, "Stella East og Solveig Kjøk"
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"In her drawing Swirling XVIII, Sol Kjøk entwines figures who are chasing a sphere. Again in this work the artist deals with the complexities of self-analysis; Sol Kjøk investigates issues of self-identification and the process of chasing an ideal."
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Ellen M. Rosenholtz,
"Hopscotch: Associative Leaps in the Construction of Narrative," Painted Bride Art Center, 2001 |
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"A handful of drawings made the cut. Mr. Kuspit gave an honorable mention to the dense composition of Renaissance-like figures by Sol Kjøk of Brooklyn (...)"
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William Zimmer
The New York Times, March 4, 2001 |
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"NOT TO BE MISSED...The drawings in Sol Kjøk's Swirling series, which are exhibited at Tegnerforbundet through December 16. Kjøk works with the human body as an expression for the human condition, its vulnerability and its possibilities. The artist is born in Lillehammer, lives in New York, and was recently awarded a grant from Robert Rauschenberg's Foundation."
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[Translated from Norwegian]
Aftenposten, November 6, 2001
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"In general, I inclined toward [works] that have a strong sense of texture (...) and/or a certain intricacy, perhaps because such factors make for a certain perceptual ambiguity and emotional excitement. Sol Kjøk's Swirling XIX drawings have them to perfection. Without ambiguity and an undertone of irrationality art-especially modern art-tends to lose intellectual substance and expressive power."
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Dr. Donald B. Kuspit, Juror Statement
New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, 2001
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