The abstract spaces of Birk Bjørlo’s works draw on the meditative, the bodily and the
contemplative.
In the works of Bjørlo, there is a focus on time, on the slowness of the process.
By dwelling in front of the seemingly empty, white canvas, he breaks with painting
tradition, habits and with his own ideas of the finished work. In this slow process, he
reaches some kind of point zero, and is able to let go to chance, and the opportunities it
brings him. It is a working method very similar to how the process of Francis Bacon has
been described.
Bjørlo works in a span between controlling the uncontrollable process, and at the same
time letting uncontrollable actions take him in new directions. There is always a curiosity
towards investigating the abstract and more technically, to what paint can actually do.
The works seem vibrant and dynamic as inner landscapes, which are either opened or

closed. They resonate in the viewer, and invite you in to feel oneself through their material-
ity. The tactile surfaces of the works are like a language beyond words that linger on in the

bodies and minds of the viewers. It is a physical meeting between the body of the viewer
and the body of the work. Here, no words are sufficient and we find ourselves in a
meditative and contemplative space.
Birk Bjørlo was born in 1986 in Hønefoss, Norway. He lives and works in Copenhagen,
where he graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in 2014. His works have

been shown, besides at Gether Contemporary, Copenhagen, in exhibitions at, amongst oth-
ers, &Model in Leeds (UK); Galerie Weissraum in Kyoto (JA) and Showroom in Malmö (SE).