Leonardo Anker Vandal

丹麦艺术家

1988年出生于丹麦

Born in Denmark in 1988

目前生活和工作在意大利

Currently lives and works in Italy

2021年获得杜卡托奖提名

Nominated for the Ducato Award in 2021

▲Leonardo Anker Vandal studio photo

▲Leonardo Anker Vandal studio photo

作品已成为我内心的一种生物

The work has become a creature within me

一种不断进化的未诞生之物

Something unborn that keeps evolving

它是一种持续存在的阴影引诱

It is a constant presence of shadows luring

是一种与我的皮肤息息相关的东西

Something impaled to the very skin that I’m swept in

—Leonardo Anker Vandal

▲Leonardo Anker Vandal studio photo

▲Leonardo Anker Vandal studio photo

Leonardo Anker Vandal

是一位新兴的多学科艺术家。他的作品涉及绘画、雕塑、装置和写作等多种媒介，充满了深深的怀旧和忧郁。Vandal的作品具有深刻的内省性，是一种宣泄形式：在他的单色绘画和雕塑中，Vandal通过他早年的个人创伤进行了创作。他将这些经历转化为一种高度个性化的视觉和诗意语言，既神秘又感人。通过这种语言，他创造了一个在场与缺席、自由与困顿、现实与虚幻碰撞的世界，邀请观者在其中迷失自我。

Leonardo Anker Vandal is an emerging multidisciplinary artist. His work, which spans a variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture, installation and writing, is infused with deep nostalgia and melancholy. Vandal’s work is profoundly introspective and serves as a form of catharsis: in his monochrome paintings and sculptures, Vandal works through the personal traumas of his early years. He transforms these experiences into a highly individual visual and poetic language that is both enigmatic and emotionally moving. With this language, he creates a world where presence and absence, being free and being trapped, reality and illusion collide, inviting the viewer to lose oneself in it.

Vandal作品背后的意识形态深深植根于英国诗人约翰·济慈

(John Keats)

提出的“消极能力”

(negative capability）

概念。这种能力描述了一种艺术，即在不诉诸具体答案或先入为主的观念的情况下，忍受不确定性、谜团和可能性--它允许像Vandal这样的艺术家完全参与未知世界的可能性，而不受先入之见的判断和假设的约束。

The ideology behind Vandal’s work is deeply rooted in the concept of“negative capability,” coined by the English poet John Keats. This capacity describes the art of enduring uncertainty, enigma, and indeterminacy without resorting to concrete answers or preconceived notions – It allows artists like Vandal to engage fully with the possibilities of unknown worlds without being constrained by preconceived judgments and assumptions.

In a Landscape

Leonardo Anker Vandal

从这一哲学中汲取灵感，专注于多样化且往往是非常规的媒介。无论是绘画、雕塑还是装置，他都将这些材料视为表达自己想法和愿景的工具。这样一来，他就能够巧妙地将人类的情感和经历编织在一起，邀请他的观众进行超越纯粹审美的深刻反思。此外，Vandal将自己的作品描述为“沉默的混合体”和“时间赋予他的刺绣”。他的作品将观众带入一个由Vandal创造的内心世界，但最终还是留给观众自己去体验。

Leonardo Anker Vandal draws inspiration from this philosophy by focusing on diverse and often unconventional media. He views these materials, whether in painting, sculpture, or installation, as tools to express his ideas and visions. In doing so, he is able to artfully texture a broader range of human emotions and experiences, inviting his audience to engage in deep reflection that goes beyond the purely aesthetic. In addition, Vandal describes his work as a“medley of silence”and“the embroidery of time given to him.”His works transport the viewer to an inner world that is created by Vandal, but ultimately left for the viewer to experience.

In a Landscape

艺术家访谈

超越纯粹

Q1：你最喜欢的创作工具和材料是什么？

What are your favourite tools and materials for working?

LV：我觉得粘土非常舒缓和宽容，在过去的许多年里，水一直是我使用最多的媒介。还有适当的写作，多年来它教会了我很多东西。

I find clay to be extremely soothing and forgiving, and since the last many years, water has been the medium I used the most. And then properly writing, it has taught me a lot over the years.

Floating Notes

Q2：你如何理解一件作品已经完成了?

How do you understand that a work is finished?

LV：这是一个很难回答的问题，这取决于你在创作过程中所处的位置和你的勇气。我遇到的一些最勇敢的艺术家，每当他们完成了我称之为伟大的作品时，他们就会在上面画画，不断把它推向新的高度，随着时间的推移，他们最终会在一块画布上画出好几层画，这些作品对我来说非常有趣。我把这一部分以概念的形式带到了我的黑暗作品中。然而，通过10多年的探索，你开始充分了解自己，知道何时该停下来，但我总是问自己：我应该停下来吗？“我是否应该停止”。

It is a difficult question and it depends on where you are in your carrier and how brave you are. Some of the bravest artists I met, whenever they finished what I would call a great work, they paint over it, keep pushing it to the next level, and through time they end up with several layers of paintings on one canvas, those works are very interesting to me. And I’ve taken that part to me in a conceptual form with my darker works. Yet through the exploration over 10 years you start to learn yourself well enough to know when to stop, yet I always ask myself:“should I stop”.

▲Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep), 2021-22

Q3：你在创作时有什么感受？你通常会事先考虑最终的结果吗？

What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?

LV：我的工作正处于这个问题的边缘，我总是事先有一个设想，但结果往往与最初的想法大相径庭，这可能会令人兴奋，并通向一条你意想不到的道路，你要么一蹶不振，要么激发你的智慧，灵魂另有安排，你开始质疑自己的作品，你可能突然不理解自己的创作。我还没有搞清楚对自己作品的感觉是怎样的。刚开始画画的时候，画画是对所有杂念的一种逃避，它给了我平静；我就像一个玩耍的孩子。现在，想法无时无刻不在，但我学会了把它们放在身边。有时我感觉太多了，但我喜欢用用我的双手工作，这是一种幸福。

I’m working in the twilight of this question, I always have a vision beforehand but the outcome is often quite different from the original thought which can be exciting and leads to a path that you didn’t expect, and you are either devastated or it stimulates you intellectually, that the soul had other plans, and you start to question you own work, that you may suddenly not understand what you created. I haven’t figured out the equation yet of feelings towards my work. When first starting to create paintings, it was an escape from all the consuming thoughts and it gave me peace; I was a child playing. Now the thought a present at all times but I learned to have them around. At times I feel too much, but I love to work with my hands, it’s the bliss of a distraction.

— COLLECTIONS —

In a Landscape

In a Landscape

In a Landscape

In a Landscape

▲In a Landscape

In a Landscape

In a Landscape

▲Songs Without Words

▲Songs Without Words

▲Songs of Wayfarer

▲Songs of Wayfarer

▲Songs of Wayfarer

▲Songs of Wayfarer

▲Songs Without Words

▲Songs Without Words

▲Songs of Wayfarer

▲Floating Notes

▲Floating Notes

▲Floating Notes

▲Solitary Wanderer

▲Solitary Wanderer

▲My Hands Has Knocked at Closed Doors

▲My Hands Has Knocked at Closed Doors

▲The Shyness of the Peaks, blocks, 2023

▲Water lilies (drip painting), 2023

▲The Shyness of the Peaks, forest

▲The Shyness of the Peaks, blocks

图片版权 ：Leonardo Anker Vandal