Leif Ove Andsnes
The internationally acclaimed pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has been cited as “the most accomplished pianist of the new generation” by the New York Times, and saluted for his many achievements by Vanity Fair who named him one of the “Best of the Best” in their appraisal of leading politicans, business men and artists from around the world in 2005.
Born in 1970 on an island off the West Coast of Norway, Andsnes gave his first professional concert at the age of 17 and soon after began his international career. Still only 38 years old Leif Ove Andsnes has enjoyed a career that has spanned nearly 20 years and led him to perform at all the major concert halls in recital, chamber music concerts and concerto programmes with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. His repertoire spans from Bach to the present day and, as an exclusive EMI Classics artist, he has recorded over 30 discs, won 3 Grammies and been awarded many international prizes.
Pictures Reframed is a project which Leif Ove Andsnes has hoped to do for a number of years. “I’m at a stage in my life where I want a different kind of challenge” he commented. “Having performed now for some time doing regular concerts I’m looking for other experiences and want to try out different ways of presenting classical music. Going into this partnership with Robin Rhode is an exciting and new process for both of us.“
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Robin Rhode
Born in Cape Town, raised in Johannesburg, the 32 year old South African artist Robin Rhode has emerged as one of the most exciting young artists in his field, avoiding the limitations of working in one artistic realm. Rhode regularly uses performance and drawing to create multi-disciplinary masterpieces. His work often consists of physical human interaction with the images he creates. He draws commonplace objects on walls or on the floor, then takes photographs or films “using” these objects to create a sequence of events, a fluid action or interaction. Rhode’s work is convincing especially because of its ability to straddle both these opposite worlds: the real and the imaginary. He considers the world as a huge sheet of paper; every place is a potential framework for his drawings.
Based in Berlin since 2002, Rhode’s growing success has shifted his guerilla tactics from the street to museums and galleries, though he continues to work in any and all locations that inspire him. In 2005 he was the youngest artist ever to be featured at the Venice Biennale’s Italian Pavilion in the company of Francis Bacon, William Kentridge, and Stan Douglas and, since then he has mounted solo exhibitions at a number of leading galleries and institutions including Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York, Haus der Kunst in Munich, White Cube and Hayward Galleries in London. His recent Hayward Gallery exhibition marked him out as the youngest ever solo exhibiting artist there. Previewing the show the Times wrote, “Rhode is a new kind of voice — a young, post-apartheid, mixed race South African making art that engages both with modern art and street culture.”
Robin Rhode has made reference to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in two recent works entitled Promenade and Keys. “I have always worked very closely with music” he says “playing with the notion of rhythm and sound. This new project is not, therefore, so distant from my regular practise although classical music deals with such an intense history and that will be a difficult challenge.”
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“Promenade”
