You Are the Artist, You Figure It Out
Eli Ridgway Gallery is pleased to present You Are the Artist, You Figure It Out, Mads Lynnerup's first solo exhibition with the gallery. Working across sculpture, video, posters, and drawing, Lynnerup draws attention to the overlooked routines of everyday life — utopian space, economic exchange, branding — often turning the viewer into an unwitting collaborator.
The exhibition's title comes from a pair of black-and-white posters whose deadpan, conceptual graphics recall the texts of Lawrence Weiner. Alongside them: Gallery Counter, a wry sculptural parody of the Chelsea reception desk, only the top of a wigged mannequin head visible above it; Clock, a 24-hour video in which the artist hand-flips a numeral panel to register each passing minute; Routines (Sønder Boulevard), an installation of video and ten posters charting the daily habits of a Copenhagen neighborhood; and Super Burrito Couch, a foil-wrapped seat for watching the videos.
Born in Copenhagen in 1976, Mads Lynnerup lives and works in New York and Denmark. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
“Conceptual art strikes many people as ludicrous. Some of it — such as the work of sometime Bay Area artist Mads Lynnerup — defends against this judgment by taking a deliberately comic tack.”