Lars Sarto Hempler (b. 1978) graduated from the Jutland Art Academy in 2006. Working across collage, drawing, painting, and sculpture, his practice reflects a deep interest in the ways humans move through and interfere with nature. His inspiration and motifs are often drawn from the natural world and the landscapes of his North Jutland childhood. He has been presented in both galleries and museums in Denmark and abroad, and has exhibited at Gallery Lene Bilgrav (DK), Charlotte Fogh Gallery (DK), Steinsland Berliner (SE), RØM (DK), David Risley Gallery (DK), VÆG (DK), Vejle Art Museum (DK), Kunsthal Aarhus (DK), and Spanien 19C (DK).
The motifs in Lars Sarto Hempler’s works are taken from the real world, but it is just as much the work itself and the work with the form and especially the colours that is central. The driving force in the works lies in the meeting between form and colour. The colours can lie in many layers and are richly present in many of the works. In several places there is an interplay between complementary colours and between light and dark colours. Several of the works approach an abstract expression, and they live a life at a more or less distance from the motifs’ original context. In some of the works there is a hint of horizon line and perspective, and in that way a hint of space in the works. In others, the figurative is almost dissolved, and the colour is what defines the shape and not the other way around. By being somewhere between figuration and abstraction, Lars Sarto Hempler adds tension to the works and gives them an openness to the viewer.