Hostler Burrows' latest exhibition promotes contemporary Danish artists

On March 12 in 2020, Juliet Burrows, co-founder of Hostler Burrows, was 'recalled' from a two-week Nordic tour after only 36 hours in Copenhagen. The unremitting pandemic imposed stringent lockdowns and border restrictions, turning the city into a ghost town. She returned home, almost immediately. “I couldn’t risk being stranded in Scandinavia,” writes Juliet in the opening pages of her 140-page catalogue: Matter at Hand. A formal introductory meeting she missed in Copenhagen was with the Danish Arts Foundation, who had proposed a collaboration in support of contemporary Danish design. What transpired later was a month-long itinerary of video studio visits facilitated by the foundation, “all from our dining table in the woods,” she reminisces.

Out of these visits, the spirit of a show emerged from a profound place - a design and art exhibition that aimed to celebrate the purpose and commitment of these ten artists, and the humanistic approaches they carry in their work. Matter at Hand, 10 Artists In Denmark by the Danish artists including: Stine Bidstrup, Anne Brandhøj, Yuki Ferdinandsen, Bjørn Friborg, Hanne G, Jakob Jørgensen, Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl, Astrid Krogh, Pernille Pontoppidan Pedersen, and Maria Sparre-Petersen is currently on display at the gallery’s Los Angeles location.

Keeping material at the core of their processes, the artists of Matter at Hand investigate their individualistic ‘humanistic’ approach playing into their strengths; engendering an intensity for their craft against all odds. Right from Yuki Ferdinandsen’s delicately textured metal vessels to Stine Bidstrup’s otherworldly glass forms, the featured objects exemplify and evoke the fundamental forces of nature. “Whether clay or wood, metal or glass, each represents the direct engagement between a living, thinking person and the obdurate, external, and uncaring domain of materiality. The very fact of the objects’ excellence attests to the absolute commitment that was brought to these encounters,” writes Juliet.

Visitors will also chance upon exploring a 140-page catalogue documenting the studios and their process photographs alongside biographies of the ten artists. In his essay for the catalogue, “To Will One Thing,” Glenn Adamson writes, “...yet these objects do exemplify a philosophy: a way of being in the world. Whether clay or wood, metal or glass, each represents the direct engagement between a living, thinking person and the obdurate, external, and uncaring domain of materiality. The very fact of the objects’ excellence attests to the absolute commitment that was brought to these encounters.”

Matter At Hand: 10 Artists In Denmark will run from February 17 to March 31, 2022 At 6819 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, California.