Gabriel J. Bødker

Nigerian/Danish painter Gabriel J. Bødker (b.1997). Bødker’s unique soak-stained paintings have earned him recognition on the European emerging art scene. The artist’s early involvement in technical production for music events and raves led him to work in the Australian outback as a technician for geophysical surveys. The stark, life-scarce landscapes he encountered, coupled with the solitude and the digital disconnect, steered him towards painting. A self-taught abstract artist, Bødker’s works are not mere depictions of the outback but interpretations of landscapes and the impact of his experience of feeling redundant in terms of being human in such surroundings. His art is a reflection of the human experience when introduced to large fields of colour, influenced by the isolation of his time away from civilisation. On his return to Copenhagen, Denmark, Bødker found himself producing work which was not a portrait of the landscape he had experienced. Rather, his new paintings were an attempt to translate the experience onto canvas.