An interview with Rune Christensen on painting and inspiration
Rune Christensen (b. 1980) emerges as yet another artist claiming the world as his canvas. His work, ostensibly inspired by “the process of living,” presents what has become a familiar trope in contemporary art: the artist-as-nomad, collecting cultural souvenirs.
Christensen’s art offers viewers what a hotchpotch of global impressions—raising questions about the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation. His paintings, described as “intensely overwhelming” and “excited,” risk prioritizing aesthetic spectacle over substantive engagement with the diverse contexts they purport to represent.
Yet perhaps this is precisely where Christensen’s potential lies. As his work shows an evolution beyond mere collection of visual experiences toward a more reflexive practice—one that acknowledges the complexities and power dynamics of patterns underlying all our lives—his rich life is translates into rich art. The melting pot he creates becoming not just a spectacle of difference, but a thoughtful meditation on connection in our fragmented world. One rooted in an appreciation of our surroundings, the foreign experience of us witnessing the domestic.
---
View the full interview at trebuchet-magazine.com
