One of the most original and recognized voices in contemporary painting, the Norwegian artist Fredrik Værslev navigates between different pictorial traditions. In his practice, he emphasizes the process of painting, demonstrating the possibilities and relevance of this medium today. His works arise from the encounter between architecture and painting and take the form of painted renderings of motifs from the artist's daily life. He treats his paintings as objects, often created by more or less laborious, serial or deterministic processes, in which time itself, as well as various external factors, become active co-creators of the work.

In several series he left his paintings outdoors for long periods of time, allowing time and outdoor wear to finish them off. Other works use seemingly cliched techniques, patterns, or art-historical citations (e.g. drip and splatter). Fredrik Værslev also challenges the painting process by collaborating freely with other artists or using non-traditional painting tools, such as spray cans or equipment used to paint roads and stadiums. His paintings often veer between abstraction and representation, as evidenced by his groundbreaking series, the Terrazzo Paintings, which emulate the materiality of Italian stone floors while appealing to the expressiveness and spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism. The Canopy series is reminiscent of modernism and its striped paintings, but instead finds its origins in the canopies of the artist's childhood home.

This exhibition in Rennes, the result of a discussion started in 2015 with Etienne Bernard, director of Frac Bretagne and curator of the exhibition, is an important step in his career. Bringing together more than 60 master paintings in the 500m2 of the Great South Gallery of the Frac Bretagne, it constitutes, in fact, a form of retrospective of all his production for nearly 15 years. The artist will present a new series of 40 canvases there which will serve as a “re-reading rail” for his older series.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog published in French and English to be published by Dilecta, Paris.