Forever & Today, Inc. presents I Don’t Believe You, It Used To Be Like That And Now It Goes Like This by Danish artist Jasper Sebastian Stürup, including three new works created specifically for the exhibition as well as a free artist book edition.

Primarily known for exploring and emphasizing the practice of drawing since the early 1990s, Stürup also works in a range of other media including artist book publications, video, and sculpture. His drawings, culled from contemporary culture, present delicate imagery through reductive line forms. Borrowed from multiple sources, these include the artist’s personal photographs, magazines, and an archive of Internet images; in particular, folk and rock musical icons, plants, animals, film characters, writers, and artists. The titles of his works are often derived from poetry and music lyrics.

The autobiographical elements of the works on view not only link them together, but point to a critical juncture in the artist’s practice. The large ink on paper drawing, It Used To Be Like That And Now It Goes Like This (2009), depicts a hallucinogenic montage of stacked objects and figures appearing like “totem poles” that may be perceived as sculptures made of differing hard and soft materials. Among the varying forms are a continuous metamorphosis of cacti, faceless disembodied heads, frozen water, an abstract fur shape served on a plate, a woman serving a cooked soufflé, a rabbit, mushrooms, diamonds, emanating rays of sunlight, and the artist himself in the act of drawing. Didn’t Anybody Tell Her(2009), is a video of cherry blossoms floating along the gently rippling waves of the Sumida River that runs through central Tokyo. This momentary transition of time and place during the artist’s travels is touched upon in a simple and visually abstract manner, as points of light glint upon the petals in the water, creating dancing lines and stars. The small fur sculpture displayed under a glass dome, Came So Far For Beauty(2009), was created from the fur collar of a discarded winter coat formerly worn by Stürup. Relating to the transformation of a fox’s fur from a living creature’s coat to adorning a collar and ultimately becoming an artwork, the preciousness of this exquisite remnant and its uncanny appearance as a fetish-like object is preserved for contemplation. Significantly, a parallel reference is also made to the artist’s own journey of departing his home country in Scandinavia to reside in New York.

Jasper Sebastian Stürup (b. 1969, Denmark) relocated from Copenhagen to New York in early 2008. Stürup gained his MFA degree from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1999, and in addition to his work as an artist, he has self-published over 20 artist books since 1994 through Fluens Forlag (The Fly’s Publishing Company). Stürup’s recent solo exhibitions include Horsens Konstmuseum, Horsens, Denmark (2008). Group exhibitions include CCAA, Tokyo, Japan (2009); U-Turn Triennial, Copenhagen, Denmark (2008); Helsinki Biennial, Helsinki (2008); Friendly Fire independent publishers area of the NY Art Book Fair, New York (2006, ’07, ’08, ’09); Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia; Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt (2006); Sixth Sharjah International Art Bienniale, Sharjah, UAE (2003); Carnegie Art Award, Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland (2002); Tenth International Print Triennial, Finland; and Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden, (2001).