TED LARSEN | Total Fabrication

In Ted Larsen’s “Total Fabrication” exhibition, the artist shares the following insights into his seventh solo exhibition at Robischon Gallery. Larsen states, “We are born into a world not of our knowing. Everything we learn as a child will become the lens through which we understand the world. We are taught to believe in our perceptions and trust in our view of the world through those lenses. Our lives are mostly fabricated, as we invent much of it to stay in alignment with our teachings. When it all gets boiled down, we believe everything we think is true, even if it isn’t Truth. It’s often these beliefs that are disrupted. It’s sort of like discovering north on our compass only to later discover there was magnetic distortion occurring, altering our perceived positions of what we thought we knew of our world, ourselves, and everyone in it. This interference can have great sway or only a small tug, but we are all subject to being somewhat lost as a result of its effects. As we age, things either become clearer or become murkier. The only way to rectify this schism is to come to an understanding that, in fact, our perceptions of everything are somewhat askew and we might need new lenses through which to see the world.

Art can be just that sort of lens. It can clarify. It can offer new ways of seeing and potentially, when it taps into our true nature, it can show us who we really are. Art is one of the greatest powers in our world. It can change who we are.

This exhibition is a visual exploration of our perceptions, understanding how we perceive them through the materiality of the work made, and our relationships to them both. Various forms of geometric aesthetic expression and progressions are used along with many different types of materials in this exploration. Frequently one poses questions to the other. No answers are given. The viewers must decide for themselves what they are experiencing, whether it offers new understanding of themselves or gives fresh insights into their personal conditions. It is possible, but not prescriptive, meaning I don’t have specific intentions about what the viewer might take away.

And herein lays the rub: as much as I make work for other people to experience, I really create it for my own personal illumination. It is not possible for me to make work in any other way. My creative practice shows me a lot about myself. I use that information in all sorts of ways. It helps me become not only a better practitioner but potentially a better person. It is a hard ask of the work to do this, but the work respectively complies. However, this should not be mistaken for me always liking what my work reveals. My work challenges me to slow down enough to understand what it is.

Ted Larsen is an internationally exhibiting artist and Pollock-Krasner Foundation recipient with a BA from Northern Arizona University. Larsen is included in the permanent collections of The New Mexico Museum of Art, The Palm Springs Art Museum, The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Proctor & Gamble, The Bolivian Consulate, Reader's Digest, PepsiCo, The University of Miami, The University of Texas, Krasel Art Center, Dreyfus Funds, JP Morgan Chase, Forbes and Pioneer Hi-Bred, Inc. His work has been exhibited widely in museums in the US, including the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, The Albuquerque Museum, The Amarillo Museum of Art, The Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, Missouri, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Larsen is currently part of a two-person exhibition with Troels Aagaard at Denmark’s Esbjerg Kunstmuseum through September 3, 2023. He has received grants from the Surdna Foundation and the Pollock Krasner Foundation, as well as residencies with the Edward F. Albee Foundation and Asilah Arts Festival in Morocco, where he was selected to be the USA representative. He has guest lectured at The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts in Greenville, South Carolina; the University of Art and Design in Santa Fe, New Mexico; The Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California; The New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Texas Society of Architects, Dallas, Texas. Larsen has been featured in Art in America, ArtNews, SouthWest Art, Mountain Living, Architectural Digest, Sculpture Magazine, and Art Gallery International magazines. He has had reviews in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Denver Post and The Dallas Morning News amongst others. Larsen's work appears in the books Art on The Edge, Biennial Southwest, The Curtain of Trees, New American Paintings, and Millennium Collection. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) produced an interview with Larsen.