email: peter@petermax-jakobsen.dk
phone: +45 6168 0777

Photo: Cathrine Ertmann 2016

Artist Statement
While the world around him might move at a perilous speed, Peter Max-Jakobsen has managed to absorb any external pressure regarding his works. His works have developed with him as a person - as his state of mind has changed, as his immunity to the world around him grows, as he reaches the most chaste presentation of himself, as does his artistic expression. Yet despite the contemporaneity of his works, they float around in timeless space, in a world of their own.

Emerging from the technology- and science-infused arts program at the Academy of Hague, Peter Max-Jakobsen has traveled a long and circuitous road to his current position. His early fascination with electronics and the application to the human body has left traces all through his multi-faceted career, whether looking at his paintings, his music or his performances. However, a few motives rise above the humming sound of the machines: humankind and the connections we make throughout our lives.

How we meet.
How we talk to one another.
How we embrace and accept.
How we are complicated.
How we part.
And meet again.

And as some of us meet again, so does the inhabitants of Max-Jakobsen’s work. While his earlier works seemed to mirror his digital world - off-the-grid, fluctuating characters, layering themselves to become whole - his later motives became more and more realistically rendered. Cables and connections wire the bodies together as they, in what seems to be meticulous detail, stretch and squeeze to embrace all of their energies.

Today, Peter Max-Jakobsen still uses the same large brushes to make broad, loose strokes. At a glance, these broad strokes seem an endless ocean of possibilities, out of which any motive could appear. Correction upon correction pave the way for him to build up human attributes, but never as many as to tie up all the loose ends. Like the unpredictability of our world, his works must remain at the fate of the viewer; they are life-sized, in every aspect of the word - as to show the size of life, the fragile connections to reality, the un-reality of existence, but never to decide what people might make of them. All the possibilities he doesn’t take stay behind and smoulder underneath the white. At times they surface. Peter Max-Jakobsen’s works are simultaneously translucent and substantial, always in motion, ever changing.

By Helena Sokol, January 2016

Represented by
Oxholm Gallery, Ravnsborggade 5, 2200 Copenhagen, TLF +45 2341 2333
Galerie Wolfsen, Tiendeladen 6, 9000 Aalborg, TLF +45 9813 7566
Galleri Stokkebro, Strandvejen 140A, 2900 Hellerup, TLF +45 2857 6954
The Graphic Workshop, Noerregade 35, 9800 Hjoerring TLF +45 9890 0011

Selected Exhibitions
MALSTROM, two person show with Aron Demetz (Ita), Oxholm Gallery, Copenhagen, DK 2016
50 x 50 x 50, curated groupshow, Museum Kastrupgaardsamlingen, Copenhagen, DK 2016
ISOTOP 2015 - groupshow at Vendsyssel Museum of Art - October to November 2015
NØGEN - double solo at Galeri Wolfsen with Volkano (D), October 2015
SENSE SCAPE - two person Land Art piece with Helena Sokol (DK) at Kunst Ved Kanalen, Løgstør, Juli - November 2015
MA / X (II) - two person show wtih Morten Andersen (DK) at SCOPE MIAMI, USA 2014
IN THE AIR - two person show with Sol Kjøk (NO) at Oxholm Gallery, Copenhagen, DK 2014
LA ART SHOW - represented by Galerie Wolfsen, Los Angeles USA 2014
MA / X - two person show wtih Morten Andersen (DK) at Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark 2013
LAG - double solo at Kunsteagerne Hobro with Tanja Kjærgaard (DK), 2013
ISOTOP 2013 - groupshow at Vendsyssel Museum of Art - August to October 2013
CIRCUIT. Soloshow. Aamanns-Copenhagen, New York City 2012
PT12 - groupshow at Vestjysk Museum of Art - March 2012
CONTINUING EDUCATION - solo museum exhibition, Himmerlands Museum of Art August - October 2011
Artfestival PORT2010 - EXODATIONS - VKM, Nord Kraft, Thingbæk Kalkminer, Museumsgården Læsø & Det Ny Kastet.
HUMAN NATURE - solo museum exhibition, Vendsyssel Museum of Art - March - June 2010

Commissions
SEAT FOR A WHILE (II). Hasseris Highschool, Aalborg, Denmark 2013
Delta RGB – gang Y. Hasseris Highschool 2012
NO GUNS - NO DESKS. Hjørring Kaserne 2011
ORMEGÅRDEN. Bergenser Law 2010
Human Perspectives. Hjørring Kriminalret 2001

Artist in residence: Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum 2003, Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum 2008, Hjørring Graphic Workshop 2010

Data
Born and raised in Aalborg (1973). Aalborg Cathedral School 1989-92
1995-98 living in Copenhagen, 1998-2004 reside and studies in Holland, 2004-2011 living in Copenhagen. From April 2011 residents of Hjørring.

Education
The Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague 1998-2002. Taught by Robin Dierkauf, Taco Stolk, Michael van Hoogenhuyze, Dick Raaimakers, Joost Rekveld, Edwin van der Heide and Paul Kitchen. Drawing School V / Majlis Thomasson, Copenhagen 1996-1998.

Work
Makes a living as full-time artist. Taught 2002-2004 at the Royal Academy in The Hague in material experimentation and sketching methods. Among others in collaboration with Klaus Baumgartner, Robin Dierkauf, Robert Pravda, Edwin van der Heide, Joost Rekveld and Frans Evers. Boardmember at Hjørring Graphic Workshop from June 2012