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Anja Carr, Moments (Act 10), Giclée print, 59.4 x 84.1 cm, 2015

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Anja Carr, Somepony, Performance costume as sculpture, detail, 201

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Anja Carr, Moments (Act 10), Giclée print, 59.4 x 84.1 cm, 2015

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Anja Carr, Moments, Live performance, the Agency, 2016

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Anja Carr, Moments, Live performance, the Agency, 2016

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Anja Carr, 2015, Giclée print, 59.4 x 84.1 cm, framed

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Doris A.Day, Panther, 2016, oil on canvas, 170 x 200cm

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Doris A.Day, Untitled, 2016, oil on canvas, 170 x 200cm

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Doris A.Day,detail

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“Somepony”,Anja Carr, Gallery 1
  "Many pieces of large fuzzy animals gathered together at a rave and schmoozing with a brick”, DorisA. Day, Gallery2

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The Agency is pleased to present the post-digital works by Anja Carr and Doris A. day.  Gallery 1 features a new performance piece, sculptures and photography by Norwegian artist Anja Carr and Gallery 2 a selection of the latest paintings by Londoner Doris A Day.
 Carr's main focus is the Eighties’ toy “My Little Pony” which was marketed successfully to little girls with a spin-off TV series raising its profile to cult status. The phenomenon of attracting girls with rainbow coloured fantasy plastic ponies featuring long manes for combing, survived beyond its initial appeal and is today mainly known as a meme attracting a fancult of primarily male or gender neutral adults, so- called “bronies“, celebrating the “Magic of Friendship” message and cosplay. 
Carr situates herself somewhere equidistant from the active participation in the “brony-cult”, its un-cynical celebration of internet neo-sincerity, and emphasising the titillating aspect of cosplay and the original stance of teaching girls how to behave gender- appropriate. She creates lifesize costumes of My Little Pony and other fantasy or toy-characters, which she wears in visceral live performances, in staged photographic series and presents as sculptural displays. The tone of the performances determines the situation to be either sincere or sexualised occasionally both which renders it forced or uncomfortably pleasurable, depending on the viewpoint, but also involuntary, which creates a power relationship.
In her recent works Carr very knowingly asserts a female gaze when delving into the world of franchised innocence. Her sculptural works suggest a genderneutral, bodyless world populated by anthropomorphic animal characters, which are inspired by conventional cartoons as well as anime. The costumes, after being worn, are either discarded empty or stuffed to resemble Oldenburg’s soft sculptures, a knowing nod to pop culture in the post-digital age.

Doris A. Day is a post-digital painter with a fascination for the anarchy of early Twentieth century cartoons, their irreverence and their underlying political impact during the Cold war and the Vietnam era. He deconstructs the imagery of beloved characters such as Bugs Bunny, Elmer, Donald Duck and Speedy Gonzales painted contrary to their animation roots in oils on canvas, ripping the imagery apart according to the screen flicker of paused film.
 To the almost futurist dissection of the moving characters he adds the fast graffiti of the spray can to mark empty canvas areas with speedy line drawing and finally layers thick impasto of oils scraped across with a wooden baton. Confident nods to Disney, Christopher Wool and Richter, merged with the pixillated and horizontally striped dissolution of imagery through film and computer screens amalgamate to a unique painterly language.
Day’s latest works add another recognizable character, the Pink Panther, to his repertoire. As always it is not just about the Panther. The show, which was first aired in 1963, was created in the shadow of the Watergate scandal, sending up political subterfuge as both hilariously camp and deeply cynical. Day’s paintings are explosively colourful and appear maximalist in marked contrast to the contemporary resurgence of minimalism. Their humorous, yet sharply political subtext, add a subversive edge.

Images: Anja Carr - “Moments (Act 10)” (Giclée print, documentation of performance) 59.4 x 84.1 cm., 2015 and Doris A. Day in a promotional still during John Smedley AW16 campaign

Anja Carr (b.1985, Bergen), lives and works in Oslo. She has recently shown live-performances at NOoSPHERE (New York City), Miami Performance International Festival ’15 (Miami) and Le Générateur (Paris). Recent solo-exhibitions include Skåne Art Association (Malmö), LYNX (The Vigeland Park, Oslo), POPPOSITIONS Art Fair (Brussels) and Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art (Trondheim). In addition to her own production Carr runs PINK CUBE in Oslo; a concept gallery founded in January 2011 () . In 2012 PINK CUBE won the Oslo-prize “Best art of the year” and Carr has been awarded several grants in Norway. Press includes art-programs on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's TV-channels as well as international magazines such as Travel + Leisure Magazine (NYC), Frieze Magazine (UK), Dimanche Rouge Magazine (FR), Elephant Magazine (UK), Dazed & Confuzed Magazine (UK) and KUNSTforum (NO).


Doris A. Day (* London, 1982) lives and works in London. He has just produced a commission for the British fashion House John Smedley AW16 and his work is featured on the upcoming album release of electronic dance music duo X-Press 2. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Mytoro gallery, Hamburg, " the Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”, solo exhibition at the Agency, London 2015, Viennafair 2014,  “A story has no beginning or end [..].” Doris A.Day, Kati Heck and Kostas Tsolis at the Agency 2014, Duchamp Festival, Herne Bay (2013), The Toolshed, Froome (2013, solo), Same Heads Gallery Berlin (2012), On/Off, Espace Commines, Paris (2011). He was shortlisted for the John Moores Prize for Painting 2014. Press includes: Elephant Magazine 2016 (March issue), Artslant ‘ Artist’s Desks’ 2015 by Charlotte Jansen and OffBlack Magazine 2014/15.