![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2016/Sergej-Jensen/Sergej-Jensen-B-2016-high-res.jpg?w=960&h=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1700481206&s=abdd2ecd74d83123d86dca0aced9899d 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2016/Sergej-Jensen/Sergej-Jensen-B-2016-high-res.jpg?w=1280&h=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1700481206&s=ef255edc7cb261a0a762db1d43152434 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2016/Sergej-Jensen/Sergej-Jensen-B-2016-high-res.jpg?w=1600&h=1200&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1700481206&s=e735c8ff6058c4f3648bf868022133d9 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Gallery-Exhibitions/Bermondsey/2016/Sergej-Jensen/Sergej-Jensen-B-2016-high-res.jpg?w=2360&h=1770&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1700481206&s=6d1b4a9f1a5bd9f30db93c63c4c66fd9 2360w)
Moneybags
Sergej Jensen
Moneybags
3 February – 17 April 2016
Dates
3 February – 17 April 2016
Jensen’s approach to painting is unconventional in that it can frequently involve a complete rejection of paint itself in favour of textiles – found or worn materials that reflect a history of use.
White Cube Bermondsey presented ‘Moneybags’, an exhibition of new work by New York based artist Sergej Jensen. Since the early 2000s, Jensen has regularly included cloth bank bags in his work, which he sews together to make geometric paintings. ‘Moneybags’ was the first exhibition to focus on this motif within Jensen’s mode of production, and also included new representational works that use bank bags as their painterly ground.
Jensen’s approach to painting is unconventional in that it can frequently involve a complete rejection of paint itself in favour of textiles – found or worn materials that reflect a history of use. In this series, Jensen limits himself to one type of basic material which is uniform in style but differs in colour, weave and size. Obtained from federal and municipal banks in Europe and the USA, the bags are occasionally branded with either the name of the bank or their original monetary contents, and represent a standardised unit as well as being a signifier of past economic value.
Jensen sews the bags into simple, grid-like compositions that take on the formal properties of geometric abstraction. In one work, for example, a number of brightly coloured bags are assembled together and then glazed over several times with dark, muted hues. Areas of the picture have then been sanded away to reveal the structural details beneath, bringing elements such as old pen marks and scribbled value information back to the surface. In another work, a grid of worn ‘Barclays Bank’ bags is painted over with champagne chalk primer to create a distressed grey monochrome.
Recently, Jensen has started to work with representational imagery taken from classical painting. In these works, Jensen primes the linen bags with a solid colour, which becomes the ground for images made with a diaphanous application of acrylic paint. One example depicts a group of men on horseback mid-battle, taken from Leonardo da Vinci's famous ‘lost’ painting The Battle of Anghiari (1505).
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/Sergej-Jensen-%C2%A3250-Fifty-Penny-2016-medium-res.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414866&s=3489e4776f651fa3f15a662af2160395 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/Sergej-Jensen-%C2%A3250-Fifty-Penny-2016-medium-res.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414866&s=717f4cd21babd7d636c228a596e30b69 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/Sergej-Jensen-%C2%A3250-Fifty-Penny-2016-medium-res.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414866&s=26a31e1aeb724bfeb98f855dc26b7def 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/Sergej-Jensen-%C2%A3250-Fifty-Penny-2016-medium-res.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414866&s=c0f35073adb8bd66b88f0685b44c1cb8 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Headers/Artist-Pages/Sergej-Jensen-%C2%A3250-Fifty-Penny-2016-medium-res.jpg?w=2118&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1682414866&s=68fd902d34bdb891367e3489fc9fbebc 2118w)
Sergej Jensen
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