Marie Birkedal

Marie Birkedal is a Danish artist based in Berlin since 2012. She studied English literature at Roskilde University (BA), Art History at University of Copenhagen, Painting at The Royal Danish Academy under prof. Anette Abrahamson and graduated (MFA) from Funen Art Academy 2010. Birkedal works with materiality, entropic processes, and the imperfect sublime. She makes visceral haptic works exploring the materiality of paint in a praxis she defines as “empathy and alchemy”

 

1) My work is extraordinarily physical

2) My work is extraordinarily transcendental

3) There is no irony whatsoever within my work

4) Disclaimer: 100 % sincerity is impossible within good art

5) I base my work on broken glass and kindness

6) I dive for pearls

7) Effortlessness takes backbreaking work

8) Pure formalism is a myth

9) Bruce Lee is important for painters

10) if one thing matters, everything matters

11) Empathy is a super-power

12) Glitter and trickery should not be mistaken

13) I accept contradiction

14) I think about John McCracken

15) I think about Ana Mendieta

16) I think about Sam Gilliam

17) I think about Robert Irving

18) Mostly I think about Peter Bradley

19) A decade in Germany changes you

20) I know who Vinzenz Brinkmann is

21) Descartes was mean to dogs

22) Material and intellect should not be separated

23) J’veux pas finir comme Camilie Claudel

24) Language exists but is mostly inadequate

25) Sol LeWitt was almost right

26) Good artists are latter-day shamans

27) I believe in the Beholders Share

28) I believe it takes one to know one

29) I never saw San Severo

30) I once saw Colorado

31) I miss the smell of Sagebrush

32) I apologize for disappearing, I had things to take care of

33) I still don’t distinguish between culture and nature

34) I still think about Lenny Bruce

35) I still think about Thoreau

36) My favorite word is still “Godspeed”