COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.- The Arken Museum of Modern Art will present Mad Love – Young Art from Danish Private Collections, on view 15 September – 9 December 2007. A large number of private Danish art collectors have opened their doors to ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. Thus allowing the museum a unique opportunity to show a different and frisky picture of contemporary art just now. The result is presented in the museum’s autumn exhibition MAD LOVE.

135 works by 70 different artists, from stars on the international art firmament to those who have yet to receive the institutional seal of approval. ARKEN’s exhibition MAD LOVE – Young Art from Danish Private Collections presents the result of a series of Danish art collectors’ “mad” love for art. Big names such as Danish Olafur Eliasson, German Jonathan Meese, American Jenny Holzer and South-African William Kentridge meet young talents like South Korean Suejin Chung, British David Shrigley and Mexican Dr. Lakra.

Collectors with their finger on the pulse - Contemporary art is flourishing. And the collectors have their finger on the pulse as few, keenly following the domestic and international art scenes to spot new talents. Behind their spontaneous and intuitive purchases lies comprehensive, professional knowledge of the art. Their private homes are stuffed with first rate paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, video and installation art, with room for both the neoclassical and eccentric works. Their collections testify to a passionate interest in contemporary art and the latest trends.

Humorous, grotesque and fantastic - The young art combines beauty with the grotesque, humour with the horrifying and the private sphere with social commitment. A salient tendency in the exhibition is the surreal, manifest in the artists’ predilection for twisting the familiar into something strange and disturbing and for employing humour, the grotesque and the fantastic as means of expression. Another tendency is the use of idioms from popular culture – from the graffiti and cartoon style of the skater culture to brands, logos and toys.

ARKEN’s selection of works for MAD LOVE shows a dazzling contemporary art. The artists work in a wealth of materials and art forms, offering both sensuous and thought provoking perspectives of new trends and of our conditions.