Anatidaephobia with Martine Poppe

PRIVATE VIEW 16th of October 2014, 6:30 - 9:00pm

Somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. No, really. Can you feel those beady eyes boring into the back of your skull? Turn around – there’s nothing there. But you know that duck is out there, waiting, biding its time. What is there to be afraid of? This is Anatidaephobia (17 October – 16 November), an immersive exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery by London-based Norwegian artist Martine Poppe. In a nod to Gary Larsson’s iconic The Far Side, the titular duck – and its gaze – is omnipresent through its very elusiveness.

Living and working in London, Martine Poppe (1988, Oslo, Norway), received her BA Hons in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 2011, going on to receive her MFA in Fine Art from Slade two years later. She has exhibited extensively throughout her native Norway as well as London, with recent exhibitions including Screen Space, Slate Projects, The Pickle Factory, as part of the Art Licks Weekend Festival and participation in New Order II at the Saatchi Gallery and Arcana at Kristin Hjellegjerde (all London 2014) as well as the Threadneedle Prize 2013 at the Mall Galleries; in 2013. Her work can be found in the Saatchi Collection, UCL Art Collection and University of Oxford and she has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, recently shortlisted for the Contemporary Visions IV, Beers Lambert (2013) and winning First Prize in the UCL Portrait Competition.