Salome & Solvej, Apollo & Farne: Andrew Sendor

Make Room is delighted to present Salome & Solvej, Apollo & Farne, a solo exhibition of new paintings by New York-based artist Andrew Sendor. This is Sendor’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

This exhibition is divisible by three - paintings, installation, and sound - each component spurred by a core narrative that permeates Andrew Sendor’s realm of considerations. For every solo presentation the artist develops a fictional story, which serves as the bedrock for artistic production. Sendor first envisions the characters then sets off on a writing process until arriving upon a well-rounded story. Once the essence of the characters and their situations become known, Sendor begins casting performance artists and actors to participate in what he refers to as “performative events”. This requires costumes, props, lighting, and a documentarian to capture all of the action. Once everything has been recorded, Sendor initiates the process of translating the ephemeral nature of live action into the permanence of painted imagery. Each work is thus a dialectical process between concrete referents and Sendor’s whirling mind matter.

Without being overly verbose, these compositions are markedly cinematic in their approach and by way of Sendor’s painterly touch. A saturated overdrive is weighed against the surreal narrative underpinning. Hyper blues with softened edges are present in paintings like Solvej in her treehouse praying for Freka Tusinbrande and Oneiric phenomenon #19: Solvej with Bhaya and Prema, the latter of which details a recurring nightmare experienced by Solvej. Sendor deftly portrays the oneiric experience of the protagonist that consists of her eating poison leaves that render her frozen during an outdoor ballet performance. This narrative juncture is a prime example of the painter’s convertible acumen between text and image.

Sendor doesn’t shy away from the rich history of painting. For instance, Solvej looks to the sea, breathes the salty air and becomes absorbed by the coastal atmosphere, draws upon a Cubist philosophy through its fractured oceanic perspective This painting also taps into the sea dramas of Gustave Courbet as well as Caspar David Friedrich’s pursuit in painting nature as a platform for profound spiritual experience. Solvej admires the eagle’s freedom and begins to imagine an escape from the confines of the ballet academy, on the other hand, can be linked to Italian Renaissance painting – from the eternal to the transcendent– in its sky-oriented vantagepoint. Both of these works are split into four quadrants, a structure alluding to numerical symbolism: the four elements; the four seasons; the four points of the compass; the four phases of the moon. 

Beyond the paintings, Sendor fosters an immersive experience, where each installation component is designed to replicate the physical sensations and environments found within the narrative. The space is enlivened by various blue and green walls and carpeted floors, along with numerous art objects staged in unconventional modes. There are paintings in Sendor’s signature, custom-designed artist frames, utilizing various wood species including: Tiger maple, Walnut, Mahogany, and Sapele. Paintings situated on pedestals and wall shelves foreground both their objecthood and also Sendor’s affinity for staging. The reverberations of an audio component also flood the gallery with a sonic influence, one that proffers the artist’s storyline. This coming-of-age tale revolves around four young teens, Salome, Solvej, Farne, and Apollo as they first study at a Danish ballet academy, then escape on a cycling journey of self-discovery and life’s deeper meaning.

Salome is the perfect encapsulation of Sendor’s ongoing pursuits... between narrative drama and confronting painting’s inescapable histories. Each work is a manifestation of the narrative’s emotional and psychological layers, celebrating and interrogating the nature of representation in equal measure.