Niels Corfitzen (born 1980) toys with light and abstraction to create surreal portraits. The abstract layers of paint strewn across his works appear as both analog and digital distortion, offering the viewer both a vulnerability and mystery to the figures he depicts. Often, his work plays on both outdoors backdrops and flashes of culture.
Corfitzen is based in Copenhagen but was raised in Sweden and lived in England for a number of years. Corfitzen works in several layers, allowing the image to find him through a gradual back-and-forth motion. The work takes an interesting architectural turn in earlier works, playing less with abstraction and more with angles. Still, one of the artist’s greatest strengths carries through: Bold lighting decisions cast subjects as both exposed and alluring. All absorbed in how the artist uses color and form to challenge our expectations.
Corfitzen is represented in respected private collections worldwide and has had a good number of highly successful exhibitions in his home country. He has also participated in museum exhibitions throughout the Nordic countries and exhibited at galleries and fairs around the world. He has received much recognition for the commissioned portrait of H.R.H. Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, which is installed in the Royal Palace.