Colour Drenched

Artists

Morten Løbner Espersen

Press release

Avlskarl Gallery is proud to present Colour Drenched, Morten Løbner Espersen’s third solo exhibition at the gallery.

The starting point for the exhibition is the cylinder. A familiar shape: simple and almost self-explanatory. However, in its apparent straightforwardness it contains a precision that makes it fundamentally demanding. A shape that reveals even the slightest imbalance.

For Espersen, the cylinder represents a return to somehing familiar. Not because the cylinder is a classical ceramic archetype, but because its controlled nature invites in chaos. The shape emerged during a period of “artistic frustration”, when the need for simplicity became particularly strong. As Espersen says: “There is a balance, a strength, and a harmony in the cylinder shape. For me it expresses a calmness and a presence.”

The cylinder’s precise proportions and stability are challenged by the ceramic process, where time, temperatures, and firing are never entirely controllable variables. This process can be sensed in Espersen’s works – not as a narrative of their making, but as a presence within the material. The surface speaks of the handling of the clay, while the colors bear witness to the movement of the glaze and the unpredictability of the firing. The simple form does not appear as an enclosed ideal, but as a living materiality in which chance and reactions remain visible.

At the same time, the glaze takes on a new role in Colour Drenched. It runs freely across the uninterrupted surfaces, creating works where colours flow together in vibrant, abstract stripes. Espersen describes them as a declaration of love to Copenhagen: the city’s brickwork, reflections, and light. However, the colours are not inspired by specific motifs, but by impressions. They are not visual depictions but translations of what is seen: “It is not reality. It is not a snapshot. It is an interpretation and a composition,” Espersen says. The movements of colour in the glaze may evoke landscapes, skies, or organic structures, yet they are never fixed in a single narrative. They remain open and in dialogue with the viewer’s own gaze.

Colour Drenched does not mark an ending, but a new beginning for Espersen. The cylinder shape creates a strict framework while simultaneously opening up new variations. The shape becomes both a point of departure and possibility: clear and calm, yet always in motion.

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Morten Løbner Espersen (b. 1965, Aalborg) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré in Paris. He lives and works in Copenhagen. In recent years, Espersen has held solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Princessehof in Leeuwarden, and CLAY in Middelfart. As of February 2026, Espersen has been selected as one of 30 finalists for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2026.