Artist Statement

My introspective paintings, graphics and videos are deeply rooted in Nordic metaphysical values. I am especially involved in attaining a condition of dynamic “coexistence” between the antagonistic forces of harmony and discord within the framework of a single canvas. My goal is for this structured “dualistic tension” to create a new kind of aesthetic experience which evokes poetic, enigmatic, existential states of mind.

This work represents the interesting contemporary tendency towards creating an ambiguous art that is simultaneously sensate and ideational. “Inner vision” is the source of my subjective creativity and my ideas are drawn from scholarship in historic and avant-garde art concepts of both “formalism” and “beyond formalism.”

My artwork can be divided into two categories: works with the nude figure on an abstract background and works of pure abstract character. Common to both is my interest in the coexistence of the line and curve and elements of action versus contra-action. I want to reflect a constant play between the opposites—energies which flow between life and death or positive and negative—with the intention of reaching a coexisting balance point.

My nude paintings are composed of naturalistic figures situated in an abstract rhythmic atmosphere of waving curves or lines. I focus on mirroring the human mind and emotions in the abstract forms to create a timeless world. The intention is to blend human emotions, ideas and sexuality into a harmonious, self-conscious whole freed from social, political, cultural and religious ties.

My abstract artwork is influenced by the “curvilinear hard edge abstraction” approach I learned from my teacher, Lorser Feitelson. The intention here is to attain an interaction between space and the concrete form—giving the illusion of both two- and three-dimensional space by using shading, soft and hard edges, concave and convex forms and voids. Once again, my goal is to create an ambiguous art that is simultaneously sensate and ideational.

Education

1984 BFA University of Copenhagen, Denmark
1975 BFA Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA

Bio

Annelise Jarvis-Hansen lived the first part of her life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Then she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, David Jarvis. They studied painting with Lorser Feitelson and Harry Carmean at Art Center College of Design, where she earned a BFA in 1975. She next moved to New York City for some years and worked with the CETA Art Project for the Westchester’s Partners in the Arts and exhibited in local feminist co-op galleries. In 1984, she obtained a BFA in philosophy from the University of Copenhagen.

Jarvis-Hansen has traveled and exhibited in many countries. She lives mostly in Copenhagen but also in New York and travels to Los Angeles, where she exhibits her work with LELA. Her paintings are included in Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art owned by Richard C. Colton Jr. (www.wowf.org) and The World’s Women on Line (wwol.inre.asu.edu/hansen.html).

She is a member of the Women’s Caucus for Art, a past board member of the College Art Association International Committee and a present board member of the Women Artists Organization of Denmark (www.KKS-Kunst.dk). In addition, Jarvis-Hansen has attended many United Nations conferences on art and culture. She founded a NGO (non-governmental organization) named “KIK-Kulturel Information Koordination” in 1980 at the U.N. conference on Women in Copenhagen, which is accredited to the United Nations. She works with other NGOs on UNESCO’s Culture of Peace program for the arts to promote a culture of peace globally.