Læsø Kunsthals sommerudstilling, “Idéen om et landskab”, havde en universel appel. Det understreges ved at den nu rejser videre og genopstår i en ny udgave hos Galleri TESE i Aarhus. 
Ny udgivelse: “Den indre torden”
Læsø Kunsthals Forlag udgav i august Steen Hagebros debutsamling, “Den indre torden”. Digtene kredser om en uforløst forelskelse der lægger sig over hele det eksistentielle rum, og nærmest vokser i et med livet selv. Gennem teksterne løber et ‘jeg’ der på samme tid både er afsondret fra og sammensmeltet med omgivelserne. Man følger en sart sansende sjæl som ser byen, menneskene i den og en kvinde som befinder sig på en helt umulig afstand, også når hun står lige foran digterjeget.
Bogen er udformet af John Ovesen og omslaget er et portræt af digteren udført af kunstneren Christian Lemmerz. Bogen sælges gennem alle boghandlere og på Vinstue 90, Gammel Kongevej 90, København. Den har hurtigt fået et publikum og det første oplag er snart udsolgt. 
Political Art 3.0: A possible crime
It has caught the attention of international media that the Danish governement is suggesting to punish even artistic treatment of religious symbols with prison sentences. A leading voice in the protests is the french satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, which was brutally attacked in January 2015. Its editor in chief, Gérard Biard, has written a manifesto against the law (link in the end of the article).
In the text Biard concludes, that the Danish government is taking side with the cruel regimes of countries like Afghanistan and Iran, where the treatment of women is both brutal and on display for entire world. Less exposed in the daily newsfeed, but just as brutal, is the treatment of women, minorities, gays and migrants in numerous OIC countries.
These topics have been dealt with in three Laesoe Art Hall exhibitions in 2019 and 2021:
Den politiske kunst (Laesoe Art Hall, 2019)
WOMEN (solo exhibition with Firoozeh Bazrafkan, Laesoe Art Hall, 2021)
Political Art (group exhibition, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, 2021 – 2022)
The exhibitions lead to a serie of online lectures, “Politisk kunst”, published by Alinea and available for all 10th grade pupils in Denmark. Likewise the exhibitions have been described in two books, “Balladen om den politiske kunst” (“the trouble of the political art”), 2020, and “Kulturmiddelklassens hævn” (“The revenge of the cultural middle class”), 2022, both by Laesoe Art Hall Publishing.
The exhibitions were either ignored or attacked by most Danish media. Still the leading Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, is “surprised to see the major art institutions abstain from commenting” on the new law. The newspaper is also condemning the looming “art police” under the minister of Justice, Peter Hummelgaard (the Social-Democrats). What until recently was condemned as “right wing propaganda” is now art that must be protected, according to this line of reasoning.
Link to the editorial in Berlingske:
https://www.berlingske.dk/ledere/nu-tromler-peter-hummelgaards-kunstpoliti-frem-og-den-danske-kunstverden
Gérard Biard is right in his observation that the law is taking side with the most repressive powers in the world. But the attitude behind the law has existed for a very long time, and already made life very difficult for artists and curators alike.
Manifesto in Danish:
https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/charlie-hebdos-chefredaktoer-med-koranforbud-bliver-danmark-allieret-med-taliban-og-irans-praestestyre
Article in LeMonde:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/religions/article/2023/09/05/charlie-hebdo-denounces-proposed-danish-blasphemy-law_6124007_63.html
Jon Eirik Lundberg
Video from Warsaw: Odd Nerdrum in TV Republika
The Polish TV Republica has made a presentation of the exhibition “Odd Nerdrum – Painter of the North”, presenting the exhibition space, details in the paintings and talks by director Piotr Bernatowicz and curator Jon Eirik Lundberg from the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.
Vernissage in Warsaw
The exhibition “Odd Nerdrum – Painter of the North” opened Friday August 11th at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Warsaw, Poland. The exhibition received honorary patronage from the Norwegian Embassy in Warsaw and drew a great crowd of artists, journalists, political representatives and general public. Pictures by Voytek Daniel Czarnocki / UCCA
Artist talks (video)
Conversations and exhibition curated and recorded by Jon Eirik Lundberg. Music by Jon Eirik Lundberg and Håkon Lervåg.
Martin Askholm reflecting on his landscape paintings in Laesoe Art Hall
The Danish painter Jeppe Kruse talks about his paintings in the exhibition “The Idea of a Landscape” in Laesoe Art Hall. The recording was made in Normandy.
Norwegian painter Tommy Johansson talks about his works in the crossing between art books and originals, and the poetic elements in his “photo album” landscapes. The paintings are part of the exhibition “The idea of a landscape” in Laesoe Art Hall, July – September 2023.
Exhibition in Warsaw: Odd Nerdrum – Painter of The North (11/8 – 10/12 2023)
Odd Nerdrum has created a position in the art world which is rivaled only by the classical masters from Caravaggio and onwards. We are proud to cooperate with the gallerist Bengt Tornvall and Poland’s most important museum for contemporary art, the Ujazdowski Castle (CSW), presenting a very unique artist with a global audience. The honorary patronage of the Norwegian Embassy in Poland underscores the fact that this exhibition is an important event. With more than 30 works presented it is Odd Nerdrum’s first solo exhibition in Poland.
Forsommerudstillingen 2023
Læsø Kunsthal åbner sæsonen med en udstilling baseret på kunsthallens egen samling. Værker af Marc Chagall, Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Hartmut Stockter og Erik Sparre indgår i dialogiske relationer; Jorns liv på Læsø, Kirkebys skulpturelle arbejde og den endelige forklaring på såkaldt “cancel culture” i kunstlivet har deres egne sektioner.
Udstillingen vises fra 9/6 til 4/7.
Årets hovedudstilling: Idéen om et landskab
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This summer’s main exhibition, “The idea of a landscape”, presents three eminent Scandinavian painters dealing with time, space and recollection. The “formal landscape paintings” of Martin Askholm (DK) is the exhibition’s point of departure. Rooted in strict pop-art and strong-colored graphical prints, Askholm embarked on landscape painting almost by accident. His pictures begin as a holliday photography which is the interpreted into his particular style. “My task is not to depict the landscape itself”, he says, “but to articulate my emotional experiences of it”.
The Norwegian painter Tommy Johansson is working in different media and practices, possibly mostly known in Norwegian public life as a rebellious artist testing the limits of freedom of expression. Less known is his deeply poetic and contemplative oil paintings, which are made in the size of ordinary photographical prints, mounted on carton used for family albums. Even though they are completely abstract, envisioned solely in Johansson’s own working process, one quickly recognizes the “places” they depict.
Jeppe Kruse (DK) has developed a very characteristic styl designated “abstract memories”. With rapid, intuitive movements ink is brushed upon unpreparated canvases within only a few seconds. The result is an ever-expanding serie of imagery with fragments of buildings, city scapes, industry and people. As if memories are finding their way to visibility through a certain mediative state of mind.
The exhibition opens on July 6th at 5 am
We look forward to welcome you
Fem stjerner til Beauty Will Save The World
Nordjyske Stiftstidende har set udstillingen Beauty Will Save The World i Frederikshavn Kunstmuseum, og kvitterer med en indfølt læsning og en stærk bedømmelse. Udstillingen er kurateret af Tamara Paliienko og skabt i samarbejde mellem Læsø Kunsthal og Frederikshavn Kunstmuseum.
