In 1989 I became non-figurative for real, and in 1992 I had an exhibition at the newly opened Galleri Rasmus.
Peter Eriksen wrote in Fyns Stiftstidende under the headline "volcanic eruption in grey":
"Grey is not identical with the kiss of death. At least not in the case of the painter and illustrator John Hansen. On the contrary, he converts the colour, which is not a colour, but a combination of all the existing, life confirming and fiery tempered in thin layers (...) John Hansen has managed the jump into nofigurative abstractions brilliantly."
I wanted to work more freely with colour, and in 1993-94 I had the opportunity to work in Brazil. In Brazil I held four seperate exhibitions, which was well covered by the local media.
In 1994 I am back in Denmark and exhibit pieces from Brazil at Galerie Gerly.
Ole Nørlyng wrote in Berlingske Tidende 2nd of September 1994:
” (...) The colour of the earth ia almost ascetic ochre, while the vigour prepares for an explosion of brushstrokes and colour. John Hansen works non figurative, and puts his stake on the abstract qualities of the painting (...)"
In March 1999 I had my third seperate exhibition at Gallerie Gerly.
Peter Michael Hornung from Politiken wrote on the 19th of March 1999:
” When you practice the free abstract expressionism, this long after the style has set the agenda for the avantgarde, you easily risk to resemble a bunch of old Americans. But if you leave out of account the associations to the sixties' school of New York'ers, and Per Kirkeby in the nineties, John Hansen has a confident relationship to the color of his painting which he masters in two senses of the word. His coloring doesn’t bawl.
Limitation is an art, and John Hansen sticks to the path by using earth colors, black, a cool grey, yellow. There is almost nothing called lavishness and bravura.
In DANSK KUNST in 1999, Palle Juul Holm wrote about the same exhibition under the headline "fateful meanings":
"At Galerie Gerly John Hansen exhibits a kind of sombre abstract expressionism with vague traces from, or reference to, recognisable forms. Still (one is tempted to write), one sees black shapes, torsoes, shadow images of animals, rocks or mountains in the dark surfaces, which always appeared on the canvas. That would usually give an impression of veigh, something brood over or something threatening; and basically it was easiest to find rest (if that was what one wanted) in his painted lithography from 1994 or his coloured etchings from 1998, which at the one and the same time bore greather lightness and more cohesion.
Should one highlight an acrylic painting, it would be the untitled catalouge number 4, where a pair of shadows between the ground appeared with an indefinable, but fateful load of meaning."