DANIEL SVARRE

Last Splash

November 14 - December 20, 2025.

Tekst på dansk

With his solo exhibition Last Splash at SPECTA, Daniel Svarre presents a series of new drawings, sculptures, and installations. The exhibition moves between harmony and collapse, and between drive and apathy, pointing to how these tensions unfold in a time when both personal space and society are marked by loss of control and unpredictability.

Eight charcoal drawings in the exhibition depict powerful jets of water, carrying both destructive and sexual interpretations, yet also a distinctly meditative atmosphere. The drawings convey the experience of water as if it was caught in slow motion, with the movement evoking a sense of calm and reminding the viewer of the body’s presence and sensuality.

Three installations also center around water as a crucial element. Ordinary table lamps have been transformed into water-bearing objects, and the juxtaposition of domestic furnishings with running water signals decay and a situation out of control. At the same time, the sound of the ever-flowing water has a strong calming effect. Water is both a life-giving force, yet also uncontrollable. In this way, water can symbolize a range of ambiguous feelings, representing both vitality and concern, in both a private, inner and a shared, external context.

The largest sculpture in the exhibition is constructed from four identical chairs, arranged so that they can be approached from different angles, and thus have no true front or back. Only one of the chairs can be used at a time, thus the piece of furniture does not invite for staying together but becomes a construction for antisociality and loneliness.

Two plaster works, which take as their starting point a vulnerable and challenged body, also maintain this sense of opposition. Feet standing on tiptoe in a moment of balance, and two detached forearms with clenched hands missing their thumbs, evoke uncertainty about direction and bodily orientation.

Last Splash has been created from the motivation that art can create space for calm, reflection, and presence, even when reality is marked by loss of control and unpredictability. Daniel Svarre consciously works with this theme. Water, recurring in both drawings and installations, functions as a symbol of both life and concern, and possesses a meditative quality that invites immersion and attentiveness. At the same time, the interplay between the domestic and the unpredictable in the exhibited objects points to how art can open new ways of experiencing and understanding the tension between harmony and collapse. Thus, the exhibition becomes a place where one can find calm and reflect, despite - or perhaps precisely because of - the challenges and changes that characterize our time.

Daniel Svarre (DK / 1976) is a graduate of the Malmö Art Academy. Svarre has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently solo presentations Dvale at Viborg Kunsthal, Spectre at SPECTA, Mit første møde med pornografien at Vejle Kunsthal and Rum 21 in Vejle, Ringsted Galleriet (duo with Dan Stockholm), and Father’s Watch at SPECTA. In addition, Daniel Svarre has curated several exhibitions, including the exhibition and performance program Pluralistisk Aktivisme at SPECTA and Hjemstavn at SAK, in collaboration with visual artist claus ejner.
Svarre is represented in private and public collections both in Denmark and abroad, including the 21C Museum in Kentucky, POC in Belgium, MUDO Collection in Turkey, Majudia Collection in Canada, and the Danish Arts Foundation.