CHART Art Fair 2025

In a series of prints, Emma Kohlmann transforms her figurative drawings into prints with a rich, textural vibrancy. By combining the fine grain of woodcut printing with the painterly brush strokes of sugar lift aquatint, and the element of chance with open bite etching, Kohlmann has created a new series of prints that have a tactile depth, enabling her quirky and highly recognisable motifs to jump from the paper.
Whimsical creatures grow from the stalks of a plant or appear as a multitude of petals; their smiling faces emerge as a tower from the base of a flower. Kohlmann’s playful imagery has a joyful spirit of togetherness, which is infectious. There is often a friendly intimacy among the figures and creatures, making them entirely relatable.
Together, the series of prints forms a network of relations where figures are clustered together in companionship in forms that are both unique and universal.

The everyday life of Tal R’s family members is the focus of a new series of prints. Finding inspiration in his close surroundings and relationships, Tal R extracts the essence of these experiences through his own distinct artistic vocabulary. Several of the motifs also appear in more recent paintings by the artist. In the process of repetition, they eventually become not just part of the artist’s retained private memory, but more universal motifs. Similar to the accumulating memories we all keep in images on our phones, the prints by Tal R are extracts of the artist’s enormous image bank and personal life.

Transformations of the artists’ experiences are extracted onto paper in a rich combination of brightly coloured areas of woodgrain and painted brushstrokes of sugar lift aquatint.

The predominant motif of the series Birkin Rosso is inspired by the actress Jane Birkin (1946-2023) and her role in the 1976 film Je t’aime moi non plus. Birkin’s character, the androgynous waitress Johnny, has featured in several of Saunders’ previous works and continues to be a source of inspiration for him.

The 13 interconnected prints inform and enrich each other. Individually, the prints are enigmatic, self-contained mysteries. By repeating and yet varying the same subject, Saunders emphasises how still and moving images are linked; their seriality enhances the cinematic impression when viewed one after the other. In a particular scene from the film, Birkin’s character is lying in a bathtub. Saunders explores the experience of heightened sensation in the shifting space between submerging under water and emerging again, as he depicts the figure in this liminal moment.

When Saunders began the series, he was eager to experiment and test the boundaries of the traditional techniques. The series evolved through variations of the same elements, resembling the work of sculptor Medardo Rosso (1858-1928), who is another key source of inspiration in Saunders’ work. Rosso’s sculptures are characterised by the same ambiguity of matter and space that can be found in Saunders’ prints. The series combines photogravure with woodcut, two techniques rarely seen together. In each print, the figure materialises and erodes at the same time, giving a sense of being underwater or in a state of flux.

Alexander Tovborg has collaborated with BORCH Editions for over eight years to create three large series of etchings to accompany each of the three books of The Divine Comedy; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

This late-medieval poem The Divine Comedy is an early and ongoing influence on Tovborg’s practice. Exiled from the city of Florence, Dante critiqued the Catholic Church with the Comedy’s graphic descriptions of torment that were used by the clergy to control its faithful followers. This critique of power in the name of religion and the absurdity and ingenuity of Dante’s work has inspired Tovborg, who’s practice mirrors the same ambiguity of both feeling connected to the message of religion and the church, and also being in a position of standing outside looking in.

Tovborg’s distinctive and immersive artistic practice encompasses painting, prints, sculpture, installation, and performance. His figurative imagery, ornamental shapes and rich colour combinations are explorations of fundamental human questions that have arisen through religious narratives, mythology and symbols. Through his work he considers how our own grand narratives were formed and how they might change and evolve.

PARADISO

Tovborg’s Paradise series of 33 prints is the third and final part of his epic project dedicated to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which in total includes 92 individual prints.

Paradiso describes Dante’s travels through space, guided by his great love, Beatrice. The etchings depict figures emerging into the light from the darkness of outer space. Printed on velvety black paper, each of these delicate etchings are inspired by the individual cantos (verses) of the book. The motifs radiate from the black paper in delicate and luminous colours, reflecting Dante’s journey circling the moon, the sun and the planets, detached from life on earth. With the same ease as Dante ascending into astronomical space, Tovborg depicts the souls he meets on his path towards God.

PURGATORY | CASSETTA

In the book Den Guddommelige Komedie (in Danish) Dante’s influential work is retold by author Ditlev Tamm based on 92 etchings by Alexander Tovborg. A limited number of the publication is sold together with a print in a custom-designed frame.

In a series of intimate etchings, Tovborg adds to his body of work based on Purgatory, the second and middle book of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, 1320. With their dreamy, fluid and colourful shapes, the small etchings instil hope.

As Inferno, the first book of Dante’s Divine Comedy, describes a downward journey through Hell, Purgatory is an intermediate place between Hell and Paradise, where lesser sinners are given the opportunity to be purified. The fluid sense of watercolour from spit bite aquatint dominates this series of prints, while some fine details are elaborated with line etching.

For this special occasion Cassetta, a Copenhagen-based framing company, has created a limited number of customised frames, designed by Mentze Ottenstein exclusively for this series of prints. The stand-alone, upright frames accentuate Tovborg’s etchings, transforming them into sculptural objects that match the scale of the book.