Glenn Sorensen

Glenn Sorensen (1968, Sydney, Australia) lives and works in Åhus, Sweden. Sorensen paints small-format oils of plants, flowers, and occasional figures, working from motifs observed in his garden in southern Sweden, many of them seen just after dark or as darkness was falling. The faint indoor light that reaches the garden at night subdues and transforms color: what blazes in sunlight becomes muted, and the shapes of flowers and foliage hold still in a way they do not during the day. This quality of arrested, hushed light is central to his work. A large part of his process is the correction of errors and the removal of anything unnecessary, a reduction he describes as lending an intensity of intention to the finished painting. Beauty, he has said, is at once the most important and the most difficult of his ambitions, and the basis of many decisions when painting.

Sorensen studied at the City Art Institute, Sydney (1986–88) and the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (1990).

Solo exhibitions include Glenn Sorensen, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2020); Corvi-Mora, London (2019); Opener, Corvi-Mora, London (2016); Future Houses, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2015); Iris, Kristianstads Konsthall, Kristianstad (2012, with Eva Larsson); Geranium Empire, Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Naples (2011); Lesser Pleasures, Corvi-Mora, London (2009); The Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn (2003, cat.); Corvi-Mora, London (2001); Galerie Francesca Pia, Bern (2000); Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (1998); Painting, F-Rummet, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö (1995); I Don't Know Why I Feel Sick-Maybe I Got Out Of Bed Too Quick, Galleri Nicola Wallner, Copenhagen (1994); and Welcome, Ynglingagatan 1, Stockholm (1994).

Group exhibitions include Den Frie 22, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2022); Den Frie 21, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2021); MOMENT, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2011); BigMinis, CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2010); Den Frie Utstilling, Den Frie, Copenhagen (2009); De Bortbjudna, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö (2003); and Painterly, 11th Vilnius Painting Triennial, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2000).

His work is included in Colin Perry, Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting, Phaidon Press.