LOOK NORTH What are we talking about?

LOOK NORTH WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTH NORWEGIAN VISUAL ARTISTS

Published by: NNBK Š 2017 Design: Hothorse Design Bureau Print: Litografia AS Editions: 1000 Supported by: NBK/ Norske Billedkunstnere NNKS/ Nordnorsk kunstnersenter NKNN/ Norske kunsthündverkere Nord-Norge For more information and artist portfolios: www.nnbkunst.no www.nnks.no

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ISBN: 978-82-93599-00-5

LOOK NORTH WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

contents

FOREWORD (07) BACK AND FORTH, ART AND ITS FRAMEWORK (09)

Maaretta Jaukkuri

Eevahenna Aalto(14) Per Adde(16) Ingvild Greve Alsos(18) Aleksander Johan Andreassen(20) Dagfinn Bakke(22) Eva Bakkeslett(24) Liv Bangsund(26) Trym Ivar Bergsmo(28) Svein Arild Berntsen(30) Ingela Birkeland(32) Marianne Bjørnmyr(34) Myriam Borst(36) Annelise Brun(38) Ingrid Cimmerbeck(40) Christine Cynn & Valentin Manz(42) Ivar Dillan(44) A K Dolven(46) Grethe Irene Einarsen(48) Hanne Grete Einarsen(50) Kari Elfstedt(52) Lillian Erlandsen(54) Thor Erdahl(56) Tor Esaissen(58) Laurent Fauconnier(60) Hanne Lydia Opøien Figenschou(62) Tone Fjereide(64) Sissel Fredriksen(66) Gro Folkan (68) Espen Gangvik(70) Maria Gradin(72) Anne Gundersen(74) Ingunn Milly Hansen(76) Christian-Ivar Hammerbeck(78) Maj Harbitz(80) Eva Harr(82) Sylvia Henriksen(84) Sigfrid Hernes(86) Aino Hivland(88) Ragnhild Adelheid Holten(90) Rakel Elice Huglen(92) Kjersti Isdal(94) Bjørg Heggstad Jakhelln(96) Jenny-Marie Johnsen(98) Wenche Harriet Johansen(100) Irena Jovic(102) Ingjerd Hansen Juvik(104) Grete Andrea Kvaal(106) Marit Ellisiv Landsend(108) Ingrid Larssen(110) Ragnhild Lie(112) Harald Lien(114) Ingeborg Annie Lindahl(116) Thor Arne Losnedahl(118) Trygve Luktvasslimo(120) Ann-Cathrine Tine Lundkvist(122) Anne Mariendal(124) Dan Mariner(126) Hans Ragnar Mathisen(128) Guri Moe(130) Eivind Natvig(132) Hege Annestad Nilsen(134) Geir Nustad (136) Inger Anne Nyaas(138) Ina Otzko(140) Solveig Ovanger(142) Torunn Ovanger(144) Kirsten Skaar Pedersen(146) Synnøve Persen(148) Ari Pyörälä(150) Irene Rasmussen(152) Agnes Reiersen(154) Ingunn Moen Reinsnes(156) Peter Rust(158) Evelyn Scobie(160) Sabine Seifert(162) Silja Skoglund(164) Marita Isobel Solberg(166) Philipp Spillmann(168) Bjørn Tore Stavang(170) Elisabet Alsos Strand(172) Arvid Sveen(174) Grethe Winther-Svendsen(176) Scott Thoe(178) Vebjørg Hagene Thoe(180) Espen Tollefsen(182) Siri Tollefsen(184) Espen Tversland(186) Kristin Tårnes(188) Elin Øyen Vister(190) Åsne Wold(192) Karin Hay White(194) Kajsa Zetterquist(196)

THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTH NORWEGIAN VISUAL ARTISTS Nord-Norske Bildende Kunstnere (NNBK) is a regional organization for professional visual artists in Northern Norway under the national organization Norske Billedkunstnere (NBK). NNBKs long-term commitment is to promote and secure the professional, social, economic and non-profit interest of the visual artist from the three northernmost counties; Nordland, Troms and Finnmark.

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8

BACK AND FORTH, ART AND ITS FRAMEWORK Maaretta Jaukkuri

When the term “expanded field� was first used in the 1960s by the American theorist Rosalind Krauss in her analysis of sculpture,* the term had a very specific meaning referring to sculpture that created a new kind of space incorporating elements around it as part of its message. Since that time, it could be said that the whole cultural sphere has undergone a process of expanding its field of references and significances; we are witnessing border-crossings, globalization, ethnic mixing, and a widening engagement in philosophy, politics, and economics. What is new, however, is the unprecedented speed of changes occurring in life and consequently in culture. As a result, we are currently living in a period of fragmentation in which it is difficult to pin down any common values that we all might share.

It seems that we are today less interested in the formal qualities of art; the focus now being on attitude, theme, and mixtures of genres. However, art today still challenges the old with new styles and genres. Information technology constitutes one of the new fields of contemporary art-making, and

digital tools are often applied in some phase or part of the production process.

Digital technology also has another key role: it enables all of us to keep abreast of all the new things happening out there, wherever they might be happening.

Nordic nature has been and still is an important sounding board for Nordic artists living in countries where the sparsely distributed population spreads itself across a vast physical space.

Consciousness of the multiple threats that our consumption-based lifestyle poses to climate, vegetation and animals is growing exponentially, and it is universally understood that these threats must be taken seriously. This has prompted a radical critique and paradigm shift in traditional humanistic philosophy: we no longer see the human as the centre of the universe; instead, we now see ourselves as part of a wider organic community in which the necessities of people, animal, land, waters, and vegetation have to be respected equally. With the expanded fields of modern technology bringing us all closer together, it is crucial to truly understand this mutual dependency.

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What does geography mean in the contemporary world? We live our lives in physical milieus which influence our daily situations and activities. The flipside of our daily existence is a virtual world in which we can be connected throughout the entire globe. One of the new salient characteristics of today’s world is the immense discrepancy that exists between our daily physical situation and the virtually connected reality. The difference may contribute to a feeling of alienation in one’s real world. We seldom pause to think what a huge difference this is making in our consciousness compared with any previous generations.

This is certainly true of the three northernmost counties in Norway.

The counties of Finnmark, Troms and Nordland are somewhat exotic regions, even from the viewpoint of South Norway, and similarly the people of the North view the southern part of the country as remote from their reality.

People in the North live in tiny or relatively small commun ities, know their neighbours, and usually love and respect the landscape and nature around them.

The tensions created by the differing perspectives of North and South are at times constructive and inspiring, while at other times they merely amount to prejudice.

What makes a good and dynamic art scene? For a long time it was thought to be possible only, or almost only, in big, affluent cities like Paris, London, Berlin, and New York. Even if these cities are still important hubs of contemporary art with their museums and exhibitions,

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art schools and dynamic, multivocal cultural scenes, there are also other kinds of dynamic art scenes which play by their own rules and rely on their own resources. Internationalism has always been a hallmark of a dynamic art scene, and this is still true. But, how ‘internationalism’ is understood today is different from earlier times.

Internationalism means openness to new ideas and hospitality to newcomers, and it requires a degree of economic freedom. It seems that if these conditions are met and the local scene is well organized and generous with possibilites, an art scene or centre can be born anywhere. There must be something that draws attention, an exhibition venue, a museum, a group of artists or other active people who set things in motion and are able to engage local people.

It does not mean that the local scene follows what is going on elsewhere; instead the local scene creates its own events and discussions. In a way, the local scene participates in the relevant discussions of the time, which can be both local and international. It seems that the best way to internationalize and make one’s own scene interesting is to do so locally, on the spot. Amid the intense barrage of communication today, the scene is bound to become known and gain recognition beyond national borders. What is lacking outside of big metropolitan centres, however, is the dynamics born out of the encounters and collisions of different approaches, cultures and geographical backgrounds.

Lack of criticism and open discussions can actually be the hardest hurdle to

pass on a small scene. A well-functioning local scene both receives ideas and impulses, but also sends them out to others. The great advantage of a small community is the opportunity it affords to interact with nature, to enjoy peace and quiet, which ideally allows for immense focus and concentration.

The kind of self-confidence required to build an important local scene is relatively new in the Nordic countries.

For many decades, we regarded ourselves as being “always behind” the world’s major art centres. As we all know, this is no longer the case.

Information is available simultaneously to everyone everywhere. Artists also travel much more than they have at any other time in history. Art students study abroad and students come to local art schools from all over the world. Networks of residencies also enable artists to gain a deeper view of art scenes all over the globe. This makes it possible to follow art on the global level. The lingering question, however, is whether there is really interest in this.

At the same time, art today is characterized by its diversity, tensions, different thematic approaches, genre blending and, on the whole, it can be seen as a field where different visual languages, visual dialectics and approaches generate both positive dynamics but sometimes also fragmentation and tension. The things that contemporary art seems to be most occupied with are history, climate change and global warming, identity, gender, nature and technology.

Technology and digitalization are occupying more and more ground in

contemporary art, but paradoxically the digital revolution also seems to have created renewed interest in and appreciation of craft and handiwork.

Today’s art is defined as ‘contemporary’, which in this case denotes more than just time. The starting point for the ‘contemporary’ is seen to be the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the political and cultural consequences that followed. New countries emerged on the international scene, and hitherto lesserknown regions gained visibility. The wall fell during the post-modern period, which no longer defines our era. We now live in a different historical period characterized by neo-liberalism and the unprecedented surveillance of both people and borders.

‘Contemporary art’ is characterized by certain common conditions, experiences, and ideas that are shared throughout the globe. These seem to build a kind of mental tapestry or invisible network which is independent of geography and connects different cultures. It is against this backdrop that contemporary art is projected and reflected, and its ability to communicate is tested. What this situation means in the long run is not clear today. The Israeli historian and internationally acclaimed writer Yuval Noah Hararin has stated that the creation of a single, uniform culture is a possible thought in the contemporary world. (The Guardian, 19.3.2017) This is not an appealing thought, however, and it may never be realized.

National idiosyncrasies still have a role in communication. In fact it seems 11

that today they play a greater role and are perhaps unavoidable more in the expressive vocabulary of art rather than in its actual content. When we share our thoughts and experiences, a global network of experience and information is built. This is, however, expressed in different languages, dialects and rhythms, and it is this diversity of visual traditions that in the end creates the texture of the network.

Some of the political changes of recent times are also extremely problematic: gloomy clouds hover ominously over democracy. Threatened also is art’s freedom, its most fundamental and its most sensitive legacy.

What seems to be challenging in the present situation is the aggravated polarization of attitudes. It is difficult to engage in discussions with those of differing opinions or knowledge. This may also be due to a lack of curiosity or the feeling that dialogue is of no use. This may lead to the isolation of smaller or larger bubbles of people with shared opinions. Indeed, this is a traditional problem in smaller countries.

It is difficult to talk about issues or opinions without their being identified with certain individuals or small groups of people. The counter force has traditionally been internationalisation.

Norway has been a generous recipient of immigrants from other countries. The national scene today is characterized by a wide variety of cultural shifts, and minorities on the local scene are also gaining visibility, if not fully, then at least better than in bygone times.

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What, then, are we talking about when we talk about ‘contemporary art’? It seems that there is a whole range of debates about this issue. Different queries, thematic exhibitions, academic studies and critical reviews have been made, and this pondering goes on. In 2009 the US critic and curator Hal Foster initiated a query in October magazine addressing the simple question “What is the Contemporary?” to over 70 artists, curators, critics and academicians.

Among the answers they gave, one caught my attention. It was given by Kelly Baum, a young curator, who analysed the situation as follows: “We might presume, then, that contemporary art is floundering and its refusal to mass around a single narrative liability, a sign of failure, even. But if art’s heterogeneity signals possibility instead of dysfunction?

What if heterogeneity is art’s pursuit instead of its affliction? What if, in its very heterogeneity, art were to productively engage current sociopolitical conditions – conditions that are reducible to neither neoliberalism nor globalisation?”** There are certain ideas expressed in this statement that I find relevant to opening up the mysteries of the contemporary, how it differs from earlier times, and how it is our responsibility today to keep the channels open and learn to better see and listen both in our immediate small communities as well as on the international scenes.

What this statement does not talk about is beauty. Referring to Sigmund Freud, the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman stated in an interview I conducted with him in 2007: “‘Beauty has no obvious use: nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it’ – Freud mused. ‘This useless thing which we expect civilization to value is beauty.

We require civilized man to reverence beauty whenever he sees it in nature and to create it in the objects of his handiwork as far as he is able’.”

What Bauman actually states is that we are living in a process-driven world.

The focus on art, with its interests and dynamics, wanes and waxes. The back and forth movement between art’s traditional values, their new interpretations, and the situation in the contemporary world, along with art’s own condition, is as vital and dynamic as it ever has been.

Bauman continues that in today’s understanding it would be better to talk about ‘beautification as one of the imaginary horizons of the civilizing process’. “We see now more clearly than our ancestors could possibly see seventy years ago, that the ‘civilizing process’ is not a time limited, transitory period leading to civilization – but the very substance of ‘civilization’. The idea of a civilization that has completed the effort to civilize (brought to an end the cleaning job, the ordering bustle, and the search of beauty) is as incongruous as that of a wind that does not blow and river that does not flow.”

* Rosalind Krauss, Sculpture in the Expanded Field, October Magazine, Vol. 8, Spring 1979. The text is also included in Krauss’ book The Origin of Avant Garde and Other Modernist Myths, MIT Press 1986, pp. 279-290 ** Kelly Baum’s answer to Hal Foster’s query on “The Contemporary”. October 130, Fall 2009, October Magazine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009, 91.

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Eevahenna Aalto

I was born and brought up in Helsinki, but have lived in Hammerfest for over 40 years. My art education is from Norway and Finland. I weave and paint and I am interested in the relationship between contrasts, especially the opposites of light and darkness. The fundamental elements such as geometric forms, symbols and contrasts in my works invite you to consider something universal and eternal. However, what may seem like simple geometry often consists of many far more organic forms – there is movement in every angle and arc. Many of my works can be seen as representations of moods and changes within the Arctic landscape.

1)

eevahenna@gmail.com e-aalto.com 14

2)

1) Desemberhimmel

2016, tapestry/ gobelin 172 x 182 cm

2) Svalbard

2012, Tapestry/ gobelin 172 x 182 cm

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Per Adde

Per Adde (b. 1926) in Philipstad, Sweden. After art studies in Gothenburg, he attended The Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm, 1955–60. Already as a student, he was drawn by the nature of Northern Sweden, and for years, he spent time painting and interacting with the local Saami population.

Since the early sixties, he has lived and worked as an artist in Northern Norway. Both life and art express his intimate interaction with nature and a lifelong togetherness with Saami people and their culture. He has gained national respect as spokesperson for Saami interest. Together with his life companion Kajsa Zetterquist, he earns deep respect for his continued work in organizing the interests of artists. Through a multitude of exhibitions and public work, Per Adde’s art accompanies thousands of people in their everyday life. In 2013 Gallery Adde-Zetterquist, a gift from Nordland County Council, opened. Exhibited art is a reciprocal gift from the artists.

Most of all I want people to experience my paintings through direct meetings – and that the paintings alone, without accompanying words will make this happen. Nevertheless, once I did formulate that I still find both true and of importance: The infinite variety in nature’s shapes and forms, the richness of life and movements give me impulses.

Nature stand as a catalyst in my work, where I try to formulate my experiences and life expression in paintings with the artistic tools available.

I make Delacroix words, with an important contemporary message, to mine when he says The day artists have lost their knowledge of and love for their tools of expression, then sterile theories takes over. Because – when they no longer understand or manage to express their thought in colors and form, then they will take to words and be grabbed by literature.

www.addezetterquistkunstgalleri.no 16

Minne

2011, Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm

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Ingvild Greve Alsos

For the last ten years, I have worked with textile instead of ceramic, because my shoulders are not strong enough for heavy work. The rug for the fishermen is done in a technique that is placed on the red list of handcraft. It is a challenge to keep that technique alive, and I try to give it my own choice of colours.

grevealsos@hotmail.com 18

The rug for the fishermen Woven with pure wool 200 x 150 cm

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Aleksander Johan Andreassen

Aleksander Johan Andreassen is a Norwegian artist and filmmaker. He was born and raised in Bodø, and is currently living in Oslo. His works have been displayed at group exhibitions and film festivals in Norway and abroad.

Aleksander mainly works with film and video installations where the exploration of methodical approaches is essential. In his work he seeks to give voice to both the discombobulating and vulnerable traits of human conduct.

Aleksander got his bachelor’s degree at Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway and his master’s degree at Konstfack University college in Stockholm, Sweden.

www.aleksanderjohan.com aleksanderjohanandreassen@gmail.com 20

The Apology

2016, Video installation with sound Two projectors, stereo system and tulle netting

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Dagfinn Bakke

(b. 1933) in Lødingen, Nordland. Lives in Svolvær since 1956.

The natural environment of Northern Norway in which Dagfinn Bakke grew up remains as the core of his art. His paintings continue to draw the viewer into that world of unique light and landscape which he understands and cherishes. As much as this corner of the planet of violent weather and a topography both dramatic and unforgiving, it is also a place of mystic and secretive in it’s moods. ”In this kind of grandiose landscape, people appear insignificant, lost in the deep perspectives of the scene.

Soon, in fact, they may disappear swallowed up in the mist and driving rain. Yet, Dagfinn Bakke can relax with mild studies drawing from the very same place, perhaps a pond in the summer stillness, a shaft of sunlight, a veil of mist, or a shining sea with a gentle swell. This capacity to feel nature`s living pulse and to give his experience of it a direct and natural expression places Dagfinn Bakke in a tradition which remains strong and vital in our art”. Leif Østby, former first curator of the Norwegian National Gallery.

Dagfinn Bakke has exhibited extensively in galleries across all of Norway, as well as in the United States, Sweden, Spain, England and Germany. He has been commissioned for works in many public buildings and been frequently recognized for the distinctly Nordic quality in his work as being asked to participate in prestigious venues. His drawings have been enjoyed in the pages of many hundred magazines and books.

www.dagfinnbakke.no dagfinnb@online.no 22

People by The Waterfront 2014, Watercolour

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Eva Bakkeslett

Eva Bakkeslett is an artist, filmmaker, curator and cultural activist exploring the potential for social change through gentle actions and subtle mind-shifts. Her socially engaged practice often combines film, participatory events and workshops. Eva creates spaces and experiences that challenge our thinking and unravel new narratives, which brings our attention to the patterns that connect us to the earth as a living organism. Eva has an MA in Art & Ecology from Dartington College of Art in England. She lives on Engeløya in Northern Norway and shows, lectures and performs her work worldwide.

www.evabakkeslett.com hello@evabakkeslett.com 24

1) Rømmekolle Revival

Social Sculpture; installation, performance talk, radio and cultural activism. Rømmekolle is a fermented milk dish made from fresh milk fermented with a bacterial culture that is said to originate from the plant Butterworth many centuries ago. The culture has been passed down through generations and generously shared amongst people. In this project I am reviving this traditional, but rapidly vanishing, fermented milk culture that has roots in the Norwegian, Finnish and Sami cultures.

2) Krutt & Ukrutt, Kjerringøy Land Art

2016, This work is an herbarium consisting of a collection of ten pressed, edible herbs mounted on handmade paper made from locally foraged and processed bog weed written with ink made from soot from the local rectory. The herbs were collected in a ten meters radius around the project venue on the Zahltrail on Kjerringøy, Northern Norway. This work also involved two public events and conversations with locals to gather stories about local edible plants and how they were harvested and used in area.

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Liv Bangsund

Liv Bangsund uses her knowledge about how Northern Norwegian sustainable societies were organized as inspiration for her art projects. She develops projects where everyday-activism, climate change, urban development and human relationships are key elements. Through active participation and nontraditional use of art materials, she explores how art can contribute new knowledge production in society. Liv Bangsund holds a MA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art and Creative Writing.

www.livbangsund.com 26

1) Fra Kurant Nabolag

2016, Photo: Liv Bangsund

2) People’s Kitchen Tromsø flyer

Idea: Liv Bangsund, design: Irene Rasmussen

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Trym Ivar Bergsmo

Based in Harstad, North Norway and uses the photograph as his mean of expression.

Through various approaches and projects, he tries to understand his own social, cultural and psychological connection to the world around and within himself. Like most Westerners he is also restless and feels a need to belong to something. Through knowing his own history, he can also understand and know others.

His works are direct, they reflect the reality as he feel and experience it. He trys to create an order in existence. He is searching for the essence of moments, the point between total chaos and sublime harmony. His work is searching for items and moments that reflect the universal, inner psychological landscape. In these landscapes he finds his own identity.

Bergsmo has worked and lived in the arctic for more than 25 years. He is inspired by the lives of the people of the north, their landscape and their culture.

He has made several books and had exhibitions across Europe. His work is represented in national as well as international collections. He is also purchased by national companies and large public commissions. His images have been published around the world and he is currently taking on a few commercial assignments parallel to teaching his own workshops.

His main focus is always on his own projects and artwork as a photographer. Currently working on new exhibitions, books and documentation projects in the Arctic. Presently also collaborating with the Norwegian composer of contemporary music, Lasse Thoresen and NOSO (Arctic Symphony Orchestra) on a large production to be performed in 2018.

www.bergsmo.no trym@bergsmo.no 28

# 12143 (untitled)

2017, Photography, Giclee print

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Svein Arild Berntsen

(b. 1950) in Stavanger.

Educated: Illustrator and graphic designer / Educator in fine arts. Organized artist since 1975, with debut in UKS Oslo1977. 42 years as professional and performing artist and art conveys.

Exhibitions: Høstutstillingen in Oslo, Vestlandsutstillingen and “Nord-Norsken”. “Norwegian culture-days” in Berlin, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk. Active as an executive exhibitor from 1975-2017. Last year-2016, the artist was invited to do a “Crossover Project” in Kunming, China (art-performance with Chinese artists and musicians).

Embellishments/procurement: Regional and local public buildings. Embellishments in churches, Rogaland and Troms county.

Artistic characteristics: Berntsen´s art is often colorful and life affirming. Expressive and lyrical. His coloristic motives often relates to dancing, natural tones and music.

Techniques: Acrylic on canvas and wooden materials.

Art mediation: His art and music has been used therapeutically within the healthcare field. Initiator of the artistic community and rural development. He received the Culture price in Tranøy, 1988 and Lenvik municipality in 2016 for his cultural work.

Blues/music: Well known as artist Pappa-Svein. He has fronted several blues bands with his songs and harmonica.

Also touring Svalbard in the North to Macedonia in the South.

In recent years he has played and shown his art in several churches in Troms county.His engagement and blues music has built bridges between art and valuable experiences.

www.nnks.no www.hifas.no sabkunst@online.no 30

Nature-tone

2017, Acrylic on canvas 100 x 120 cm

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Ingela Birkeland

(b. 1944) in Sundsvall, Sweden.

Educated at Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, Sweden Visual artist debut at UKS, Oslo, Norway. 1978 A longing for the ultimate expression is the core of my motivation.

Through structures of chaos, with hidden incubation processes, concepts are built up, matured and manifested.

New visions open suddenly or hesitantly, while others are suppressed and stored indeterminately. It is all about identity, my own and my works - not identical, but in a relationship. Something in me works with ideas and goals openly and and structured on the surface, others evolve in the hidden with themes and visions of it’s own. All this is connected in an invisible structure.

It is about a maturing time after an impression unpredictable both in time perspective, and how this influence and change me and my work. In this I gather the anticipation and the excitement, but also the faith I need.

These processes live their own life. I can’t miss anything or consciously avoid anything.

In the open processes lie ideas, themes about the visible and the invisible, the multi sided and the paradoxical. Geometry and minimalism are often framework conditions. In the hidden processes, impressions from colours and forms in nature are often of great importance, as well as seasons and weather.

Still I am aware there are other more hidden dimensions that strongly influence the development of my artwork. Those are of such a character that they can’t be consciously grasped or verbal described.

www.ingela-birkeland.com ingela.birkeland@online.no 32

1) Sand, water, connection

2014, Collage, Acrylic on watercolour paper 52 x 52 cm

2) In Horizon

2013, Collage, Acrylic on watercolour paper 42 x 42 cm

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Marianne Bjørnmyr

Marianne lives and works in Bodø, Norway.

She received her MA in Photography from London College of Communication in 2012. In her practice she works with research based photography, concerned around our perception of the photograph’s approach to reality, where the presentation of the photograph is set up against our understanding, interpretation and generated perception of imagery. Through experimentation around photographic presentation she works with the photograph’s role in conveying objects and surroundings, set up against our understanding.

Marianne’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including Daniel Blau’s ‘5 under 30’, Format Festival and Høstutstillingen, and she has taken part of several residency programmes. She has published the three limited edition books Shadow/Echoes (2013), An Authentic Relation (2016) and Beneath the Salt (2017).

1)

www.mariannebjornmyr.com m.bjornmyr@gmail.com 34

2)

1) Your Penumbra

2016, 16mm video 3,14” Stjernestøv fotogram 140 x 100 cm

2) Your Penumbra

2016, Stjernestøv fotogram 35 x 40 cm

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Myriam Borst

Born in Netherlands, lives in Hadsel since 1991. Borst graduated from Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and has exhibited extensively in Norway and abroad. Her work is inspired by the landscape and her relationship with the landscape. The arctic and it’s energy inspire her works as well as how we perceive a landscape is coloured by our own thoughts and memories. Borst’s paintings are mostly abstract. The expression reflects the unconscious for both the creator and viewer - and often it’s the contrast of nature that’s on display.

1)

www.myriamborst.com myriam.borst@gmail.com 36

2)

1) Berørt

Installation, Mixed media 240 x 200 cm Trollfjorden in the hydro electric power plant, shows the vulnerability of nature, how people affect the pristine landscape a collaborative between people and elements, from water to light.

2) Du Verden

2016, Painting, Mixed media 150 x 150 cm One of the paintings Hadsel Municipality has purchased for Hadsel videregĂĽende skole (2016) in Melbu.

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Annelise Brun

(b. 1966) in Tromsø. My higher Art education is from the Netherlands with a Diploma from Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam in 1991. Today I live and work in Tromsø as a visual artist. I have taken part in several group and solo exhibitions, commission work, art teaching and I am represented in public art collections.

In search of identity and a sense of belonging brought me into the Art World. The intimacy and immediacy in drawing fascinate me where I sense, feel and form the drawing in a continuous growing and building process. Fragments emerge and interlace, seeking new dimensions and perspectives.

With charcoal, graphite and pastel I can work more profoundly, and create a stronger interaction between texture and line.

www.annelisebrun.com 38

Embrace

2016, Drawing. charcoal, graphite and pastel

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Ingrid Cimmerbeck

Art/ceramic education from England and Sweden. Moved to Bodø, Norway in 1979 and started own ceramic studio in 1980.

Cimmerbeck has participated in many collective exhibitions and has had several solo exhibitions and public commissions.

1)

www.cimmer13.com cimmer@online.no 40

2)

1) Responses

2016, It’s not certain that (Raku burned small plates, mounted with needles and stoneware burned plates with words) Fnugg (White glazed reliefs, stoneware) Spring and summer-waves (Unglazed stoneware) Under the summer lies the autumn (Raku burned small egg shapes)

2) Over for the bees

2016, Unglazed, black reliefs and raku burned plates 130 x 260 cm

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Christine Cynn & Valentin Manz

Christine Cynn & Valentin Manz are co-founders of Ice-9 AS in Tromsø. They have collaborated on numerous interactive installations incorporating audience participation, largescale sculptural environments and multichannel video installations. They are currently working on X2068, a storyhacking laboratory on the future.

Christine Cynn has been developing new ways to catalyse and document the human imagination in order to illuminate the conflicts of desire, fear, and hope that shape our lives and our world. She is co-director and co producer of the awardwinning documentary The Act of Killing (2012) Christine studied film with Dusan Makavejev and Chantal Akerman at Harvard University.

Valentin Manz’s work engages viewers visually and physically in a sculptural theatre made from glass, metal, clay, and found materials such as cardboard and furniture. Manz has been a fellow at Urban Glass in Brooklyn (2005) and the Creative Glass Center of America (2007 & 2013). Valentin has shown his work in London, Munich, and New York. He studied stage design at the Slade and Central St. Martin’s College of Art, and graduated from Goldsmiths as an art psychotherapist.

sciencefuture.nu theactofkilling.com 42

christine@ice-9.no valentin@ice-9.no

1) Virtual reality experience

From the exhibition, X2066

2) Boardgame, close up

From the exhibition, X2066

43

Ivar Dillan

Ivar Dillan (b. 1939) in Bodø, where he lives and works. He studied music at the University of Oslo. Ivar Dillan paints in a modernist tradition, and his paintings have an expressionist idiom. The colors, movement and dynamics between lines and surfaces hold strong references to music. Dillan is interested in the performers and the immediate atmosphere of a concert venue and how to express this in a picturesque and characteristic way.

Dillan has exhibited extensively and is purchased by several public and private institutions, such as the Arctic Art museum and Norrbottens Museum in LuleĂĽ.

1)

www.dillan.no 44

2)

1) Cello og bratsj

Acrylic on canvas 50 x 50 cm

2) Ad-libitum

Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 cm

45

A K Dolven

A K Dolven lives and works in London and Lofoten, Norway.

Dolven’s practice involves a variety of media; painting, photography, performance, installation, film and sound.

Recurring themes in her extensive production are the representation of natural forces and their deep resonance with human sensibilities. Her work alternates between the monumental and the minimal, the universal and the intimate, resonating with concepts and structures beyond the confines of any particular piece. Interpersonal relations and interactions are central to her practice, and many of her performance-based works involve collaborations with other artists.

A K Dolven has exhibited extensively internationally at a wide range of institutions and galleries including: KunsthalleBern; Philadephia Museum of Art; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; IKON Gallery, Birmingham; Platform China, Beijing; The National Museum of Art, Oslo; KIASMA, Helsinki; Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø; CCC Tours, France and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Her work is included in central international private and public collections, among others Art Institute of Chicago, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Hoffmann Collection and Sammlung Goetz in Germany.

Recent solo exhibitions include Kunsthall Svalbard, Longyearbyen, OSL contemporary, Oslo, (2016) and IKON Gallery, Birmingham, (2015). Recent group exhibitions include the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark and 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai.

www.akdolven.com ak@akdolven.com 46

ahead

2008, Video still, HD Video projected on a 6-8m tilted screen 18 minutes 43 seconds, SD video on Monitor, 3 minutes looped, 2 channel audio Rescue blankets on floor

47

Grethe Irene Einarsen

(b. 1972) Grethe Irene Einarsen majored in photography from The Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen in 1999.

After graduating, she has based herself in Narvik, worked with exhibitions, installation and commissions nationally and internationally. She is a member of the board in NNBK/ North-Norwegian Visual Artist Association. She has received several scholarships, the latest being, The Culture Ministry 3 year working grant.

Einarsen works primarily with photography in which psychology and interpersonal relations are recurring themes.

1)

www.gretheeinarsen.no grethe.einarsen@gmail.com 48

2)

1) Friends at twelve

Giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 100 x 154 cm

2) People in a hotspring

2016, Giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 70 x 100 cm

49

Hanne Grete Einarsen

Lives in Snefjord in Western Finnmark.

Through my father I learned how important the oral narrative tradition in coastal Sami culture is. Since I didn’t have the spoken language, I started to draw and paint in order to be able to tell my stories. Through applying a variety of techniques, I use tools and materials on the basis of the topic or story that I’m working on.

The stories deal with family, community, tradition and my own everyday life experiences. I am often present within the stories that make my artwork. Yet the audience may also recognize themselves in my art.

www.snefjordprinsessa.no tossami@gmail.com 50

BROOCH 1/5

2016, Cable Reel Wall, copper plate, steel, iron and oil painting 130/140 x 160 x 120/140 cm

51

Kari Elfstedt

Kari Elfstedt works in many fields within the Arts. She has a diploma from The Art Academy of Arts and Crafts, Oslo 1972 and a post education as an Art Creative Curator at The Art Academy in Bergen 2006. She is an experienced Costume designer working for Feature films and received the Amanda Award in 1990. She is a Textile Artist, has curated exhibitions, is an Art Consultant for KORO (the Norwegian Public Art commissioning body) and has completed several commissions herself as an Artist. She is now mainly working with large sculptured textiles and costumes inspired by the Japanese Shibori tradition. She co-Directs an Art Project and AIR program, ABH 66°N, Helgeland (Norway) with Ina Otzko.

Chairman of Norwegian Arts and Crafts, Northern Norway 2010-2014.

My works are three-dimensional objects, costumes and textiles for wall installations. My recent works are inspired

by Japanese Shibori techniques. In my projects I use wool and silk as materials experimenting with new methods of reservation in this color technique. The unpredictable outcome, which is controlled by the way the material is basted, folded, pleated and dyed is a challenging process.

I work with rhythmic repetition of lines and patterns and based upon my own experiences of the materials behavior, I try to find the right balance between the predictable and unpredictable. Wool and silk are challenging materials to work with in color processing, but provide interesting and beautiful results with soft and smooth transitions.

My inspiration can be a conceptual idea as well as a challenging technique where I am aiming to challenge myself as well as the audience through confrontations of theme, material and craft.

www.karielfstedt.com karielf@online.no 52

1) The Ocean

135 x 232 cm

2) Red Sisters

2016, Giclee print on HahnemĂźhle Photo Rag 92 x 130 x 20 cm

53

Lillian Erlandsen

(b. 1950) in Tromsø but has lived most of her life in “Ironworks town” Mo i Rana.

She is a textile artist and is specialized in weaving through her study at the National Arts and Crafts School in Oslo.

She has researched old Norwegian textile traditions and is the author of the book on weaving “Fellåklær”, a knowledge she uses as inspiration in her artistic career. In her textiles she breaks tradition and replacing nets with different types of metal thread that she finishes in different ways.

The metal has it’s own energy and she has achieved a distinctive character in the art without losing the character of the traditional technique. Her works have been left to nature and the textiles exposed to the natural elements so they rust. Lillian’s art brings out the beauty of the perishable.

lillian.erlandsen@gmail.com 54

Gullfaks

2016, Cotton/linen and messing, brass wire 110 cm x 90 cm

55

Thor Erdahl

I am a painter and graphic artist, and have also worked tridimensional with decoration, installations and my own art projects. I live and work in KabelvĂĽg. I am interested in shapes from nature and in the people and the history of Northern Norway.

Stepping back from the detail allows you to see the whole.

Travelling gives you an opportunity to reach the necessary distance.

I have participated in several exhibitions in Norway and abroad such as Russia, Poland, East and West Germany, Sweden, France and USA, New York.

1)

www.facebook.com/lillekabelvaag www.nnks.no/kunstnere/thor-erdahl thor@lillekabelvaag.no 56

2)

1) Landscape in Lofoten

2016, Oil/tempera on canvas 100 x 120 cm

2) Two art collectors who eat each other on an art conference 2016, Oil/tempera on canvas 120 x 120 cm

57

Tor Esaissen

Tor Esaissen (b. 1936) in Trondheim. He started his education at The Art School in Trondheim, 1951 and continued at The State Academy of Craft and Art Industry in Oslo, the National Art Academy, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and finally at The Academie des Beaux-Arts 1959/60. He has had numerous solo shows and is purchased by Trondheim Art Society and The Norwegian Cultural Council and has a work installed at the Forenede Livs bygg in Trondheim. In 1986 he moved to Svolvær and in 1992, he decided that Sørvågen was the place he would stay and work the rest of his life.

-What kind of artist are you? “You could say that I try to be a fellow human being. When I start on a picture I have rarely an idea. I just start the process and see what comes out of it. The fact is that we are all born artists. All are curious, and should create something out of what we discover. That’s what is art. Through my art I try to understand more about life. Images are everything, not just what you see and I have to say that oil painting is the medium closest to me. But you know I can’t afford to buy canvas and colors all the time so I explore other materials and work with other techniques.

The other processes always adds something new to my oil paintings.”

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/tor-esaisse 58

Tor Esaissen

Foto: Eivind Natvig

59

Laurent Fauconnier

Laurent Fauconnier practices woodcutting since 1980 as a formative technique. Currently he print these matrix on canvases and he installs textile pillar-sculptures in the space.

His interest for the spiritual aspect of art pushed him toward the research on ancient techniques like lime painting.

He experiments with natural materials found in the environment as pebbles, wood, tree, fire, and natural pigments. In his artistic conception, the use and transformation of materials directly taken from the environment are as important as the final work of art.

Through such a creative process the soul of the artist is transformed and by identification, the soul of the viewer can also undergo a similar transformation.

In such a creative process the sites in which he acts and the energies that emanate from it, are central. He utilizes the tree as archetypal symbol of life and of the relation between human being and nature. He uses performance and installation as experimental creative process in constant evolution.

He has held exhibitions in France, Italy, Korea, Latin America and Norway.

He was educated at The National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.

PERFORMANCE Man’s life is like a circle in which he is immersed.

He has the potential to explore it’s borders. It is about research, seeking eternity in the ephemeral, letting light emerging from chaos, the essence of everyday gestures being revealed.

He utilizes performance as experimental creative process in constant evolution.

Improvisations are developed into a structure, in which the performer sets a frame of action so as to change it in the interaction with other invited performers or even with members of the audience.

www.laurentfauconnier.com laurentfauconnier@hotmail.com 60

Kjenn Skogen (Performance) 2016, Peripheral center Foto: Martin Eilertsen

61

Hanne Lydia Opøien Figenschou

The works are within the field of drawing, text and video.

The texts form the basis of video prose and poetry. In drawing the covered self-portrait has been a recurring theme. It refers to different cultural strategies on how to express identity through covering and uncovering the body. It describes a desire to create an ownership of the self-portrait, a male domain throughout history. There are allusions to a portrait tradition where headdress and clothing were important to place the object in a context.

The present drawings are an extension of the self-portrait where anonymity to a high degree is created by removing the object but all the same saying something about its presence.

The drawings are also a story of human relations that are taken further into a text. This is manifested in poetry, prose or video. The texts constitute a prolongation and reflect upon universal subjective thoughts often withheld from the public.

Figenschou grew up in Tromsø and was educated at the Art Academy in Trondheim and the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. She now lives and works in Oslo. Her works have been exhibited widely and are represented in private and public collections such as The Museum of Art, Crafts and Design, NO, Sparebank 1, North of Norway Art Foundation and The North Norwegian Museum of Arts and Crafts. She has received numerous grants and prizes, in 2015 a Ten Year Working Grant from The Norwegian Arts Council.

www.hannelydia.com hannelydia@gmail.com 62

Ulrike and I (for Ulrike Meinhof) Blood-red Understanding Branches out through Inherited Experiences that came before Mengele, gas chambers, bonfires, battles, child births always coming last Your mind my mind is the same where we Barely Touch loving, caring, empathic in A magical moment Before The bonfire is lit and we are slowly devoured by The flames Who said it doesn’t hurt?

Ulrike and I

2015, Poem 110 x 75 cm From the book An Account of Predicted Estrangement, 29 poems, translated from Norwegian by Thilo Reinhard, HLOF, 2015

Ulrike and I

2014/15, Coloured pencil on black paper 110 x 75 cm

63

Tone Fjereide

Tone Fjereide grew up in Tromsø. Lives and works in Oslo.

Graduated from Håndverk og kunstindustriskolen, Institute of Textile, Oslo, 1998 (KHIO) and hold a Master’s program in Project Management from BI, Oslo, 2007.

She has worked as a producer, curator and project manager for various art projects, an art consultant for Oslo municipality and has completed several commissioned works.

Fjereide is one of the founders and co-owner of the international artist centre Can Serrat in El Bruc, located near Barcelona, Spain since 1989.

She has recived several grants and an award from Høstutstillingen and held several solo shows as well as participated in various group exhibitions.

Member of NBK, NNBK (board member).

She works with a range materials and mediums such as textile, painting, graphic printing and installations.

The theme is abstract or related to issues of identity, heritage, environment and relationships. Fjereide uses colour as an important ingredient in all her work.

1)

tofjer@gmail.com 64

2)

1) The desk drawer

2017, Coloured canvas with monotype, stitching on paper, wooden frame and drawer.

34 x 48 cm

2) Storys of coming home

2017, Textile colour and monotype on canvas with various embroidery and aged wood.

170 x 200 cm

65

Sissel Fredriksen

Sissel Fredriksen lives and works in Tromsø, Norway. She studied at The National College of Art and Design, and The National Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen, Norway.

In her works she often use contradiction as a way to express an experience of complexity. Lately she has been working with drawings that resemble newspaper pages where the text is visual but not possible to read, this against the narrative in the pictures. Newspaper is meant to be an objective and matter-of-factly source of information, while the drawings are a personal subjective expression. In the drawing the text element become blurred and acts as a visual element, and the pictures are not explainable in light of any events in time or place. The observer must add his own meaning or understanding of the “newspaper”. The drawings are influenced by nature, the drama within nature and the human impact. To live close to nature makes her conscious of our dependence on nature, and the importance to treat our environment with respect.

She have exhibited at Tegnerforbundet, Galleri Nordnorge, Haugesund Kunstforening, Tromsø Kunstforening, Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Unge Kunstnernes Samfunn, Høstutstillingen, Oslo. Her works are presented in the collections of Sparebanken 1 Nord-Norge kunststiftelse, Troms Fylkeskommune and St. Olavs Hospital. In 2014 she received 10-year working grant from The Government Grants for Artists.

1)

www.sisselfredriksen.com sisselfr@broadpark.no 66

2)

1) Pages with pictures. 1,2.

2017 57 x 29 x 2 cm

2) Pages with pictures. 3.

2017 114 x 76 cm

67

Gro Folkan

Gro Folkan is born in Oslo, Norway. Lives and works in Oslo and Tromsø.

She studied painting and graphics at the National Art Academy in Oslo and has exhibited extensively in leading galleries in Norway and abroad. Folkan’s works have been purchased by the Norwegian National Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo, National Bank of Norway, National Universities, institutions and offices.

1)

www.grofolkan.no g-fol@online.no 68

2)

1) AURORA BOREALIS, shifting in colour, red to green

2017, Mixed techniques, acrylic, foto, paper, interference colour and rust 120 x 97 cm

2) BEFORE THE EYE’S FOCUS

2014, Acrylic,oxidized brass and copper, interference colour 150 x 120 cm

69

Espen Gangvik

Espen Gangvik is a Norwegian artist and curator born in Tromsø in 1958. Gangvik studied at The Academy of Fine Art in Trondheim from 1980 to 1984.

Gangvik is noted as an artist that from a constructivist perspective works between reality and virtuality. His sculptures - often performed in metal or other materials that give a sense of possessing mass and a fixed form - is based on the manipulation of space using geometry and mathematics as the basic tool. Prof. Øivind Storm Bjerke, 2000 In the early 90´s Gangvik pioneered the utilisation of computer-assisted calculations and 3D printing for designing and producing sculptural objects. At the exhibition Electra ´96 at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, 1996, he presented Compustructions, the first Norwegian fully digital-produced sculpture project.

In 2002 Gangvik founded the non-profit organisation - TEKS - Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre - which aim to facilitate the production and dissemination of art that utilise new technologies and scientific insights. He is currently the CEO of the foundation. TEKS is the founder and producer of the international biennale for art and technology, Meta.Morf.

Espen Gangvik has from 1984 participated in numerous group exhibitions at home and abroad. He is represented in several public collections and as such purchased by the Arts Council Norway, The National Gallery and The Museum of Contemporary Art. He has since 1986 carried out a number of major commissions, including The National Monument of Freedom - Trinigon - (1995 - 2005) in Narvik.

www.gangvik.no espen@gangvik.no 70

‘Sanshii’

2013, Cortén and polished stainless steal, lacquer h300 cm

71

Maria Gradin

My work is mainly based on photography. Presented either as outdoor installations or in galleries and alternative exhibition spaces. Sometimes also stop motion and video.

As an artist I usually work with projects and like to explore the relation between human and nature, mostly in the northern areas. The climate changes concerns me, and the changing of living conditions for both humans and nature.

Janeke Meyer Utne wrote some years ago, “In the art of Maria Gradin photo, art and ethnology are melting together. …

Gradins motives tell distinctive stories. Tags for her art is identity and culture” As examples of my way of working I will mention two of my latest projects. “The Naked kayak”, an exhibition about Greenland as a changing society, and Peeping Barents at Barents Spectacle in Kirkenes 2016, an outdoor installation where you could study a big collage through small holes in a fence. The collage was based on AIR Barents Photo in 2015 and the focus was on a recycling community of survivors in North Western Russia.

I have studied photography, film, ethnology, human ecology and I have a MA in philosophy from Visual Culture studies at UIT. My works are part of several collection as North Norwegian Art Museum, Norwegian Council, The Art Foundation SNN 1, The Sami collection and I have made Public Art project for KORO at UIT, The home for youth in Alta. My pictures are also presented at Lofoten Hospital/avd Svolvær.

I am originally from Sweden but based in Kabelvåg / Lofoten since the middle of the 80s. I am also a member of FFF, The association of free photographers. CV is updated at www. nnks.no/kunstnere. At the same site you can also see some examples from earlier works.

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/maria-gradin kmariagr@online.no 72

Det var den gang de to ravnene kom for ĂĽ redde landet/ It was the time when the two ravens came to save the country 2014, Digital print on handmade paper from Japan 50 x 90 cm

73

Anne Gundersen

I am an Artist living in the northern part of Norway, in the countryside, just below the Arctic Circle. I live in the middle of a fjord landscape of five fjords.

My work is reflected of who I am and where I live. The nature, the wilderness and the houses that I find in the area inspires me a lot. For the last 10 years my work has been camerabased with expressions put together of my own photos.

I try in each piece to reflect my identity and my cultural background, and to capture what I find essential in what I see and what I experience around me.

www.annegundersen.com annegundersen444@hotmail.com 74

1) Hit by the Sun

2016, Photo collage

2) Sharing the boat

2017, Photo collage

75

Ingunn Milly Hansen

I work with textiles as my medium.

The beginning of a project is often the loom and dyeing.

I’ve always been fascinated by the loom’s possibilities and limitations through its constructing principles.

Inspired by cultural heritage and craft tradition I use the traditional dyeing technique ikat where warp threads have been bound and dyed before weaving. I also paint directly onto the warp threads, giving a nice variety in the surface.

Using materials such as linen, nylon and polyester, the shiny materials will accentuate the colour and reflect the light in a nice way. My works often circle around nature in the north.

Art Concultant, KORO (Public Art Norway)

1)

www.ingunnmilly.no www.norskekunsthåndverkere.no/users/ingunn-milly-hansen ingunnmillyhansen@gmail.com 76

2)

1) Inn i det BlĂĽ / Into the Blue 2016, Ikatvev - Linen

2) Bølgelengder / Wavelengths

2016, Ikatvev - Nylon/Polyester

77

Christian-Ivar Hammerbeck

Born in Germany, lives in Northern Norway on the Lofoten archipelago since 1985.

Hammerbeck is a watercolourist; his subject is the landscape and the light north of the Arctic Circle. His watercolours give an impression of the landscape’s character in a unique personal manner. Painted on dry paper, sometimes in combination with crayons, his subjects correspond in a special way with the Nordic landscape. His works have been exhibited in more than 100 exhibitions.

1)

ivarbeck@hotmail.com 78

2)

1) Lofoten

2014, Painting

2) Lofoten

2016, Painting

79

Maj Harbitz

(b. 1928) Educated at Oslo Academy of the Arts: Art and Crafts, 1945-49, L’Accademia di Belle Arti, Firenze, 1950-52.

She has been a member of NNBK/ Association of Norwegian Visual Artists since she moved to Northern Norway in 1958.

In 1986 she got the Norwegian State guaranteed income for artists. Her paintings and pastels are shown and integrated in public spaces in Northern Norway. Her artistic practise relates to her direct and spontaneous way of painting and drawing nature and people. Harbitz paints everywhere and at any time. All from fast notes of the changing light in the north, to the sky seen from inside the airplane. When it gets too dark outside, she uses a torch for completing her sketches. If it gets too cold outside, she gets into the car, and try to catch or continue her motive through the window.

With all her travels and works between Tromsø and Paris, it is no wonder she is influenced by the impressionists and their 19th-century art movement.

In an interview with Ellen Pollestad / Nordlys Newspaper in 1988, Harbitz said: “I think both the light during polar nights and the strong spring light which release the dark period, is interesting to express in colours. The polar night light is like a shape without light and shadow, smooth and intense glowing, while the spring light appears with sharp colours and form. I find the contrasts in the north interesting to approach and work with. I also find it exciting to change between my destinations: Svolvær, Tromsø and Paris.”

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/majharbit gunn-har@online.no 80

On the bridge / PĂĽ brua 2010, Oil painting

81

Eva Harr

I have a contemplating approach to my work, where nature’s cycle always is my focus. The different moods of day and night; the moon with it’s poweful symbolism and influence in our lives. The symbols I use in my pictures are often universal and strong loaded.

In times where nature is threatened on so many levels, it is natural for me to have a reaction and an unrest towards this, but without losing hope! Not to be nostalgic, but to express a state I believe that we need.

Meditations and quiet moments, reminders of our common connection in nature. My abandoned houses and landscapes mirror our time of unrest, with references to both declay and belonging. A house is a face; maybe the most comforting symbolthat we know- especially when we call it “home”.

I have to seek behind my motives, feel the skeleton, and be able to convey.

It is important for me to interpret, instead of reproduce the landscape.

1)

evaharr@hotmail.com 82

2)

1) En annen tid

2015, Liografi

2) HÃ¥p

2016, Liografi

83

Sylvia Henriksen

What we leave behind – I explore how textiles and artifacts remain like traces as we move around. We are traveling – everything is transient. I aim to communicate a story as well as a message. My work is also based on a desire to make a difference in relation to crises we face. I question consumption, displacement, pollution and change. In my art I use found objects, as set in context express a visual language more than a practical function. I also work with series of design objects made from recycled material under the brand name Rundt & Rundt. It is all connected.

www.rundtogrundt.no syhenr@gmail.com 84

NESTS

2015, Mixed media – marine debris, grass, eggs 40 x 40 x 15 cm

85

Sigfrid Hernes

Sigfrid Hernes is born in Voss, lives and works in Alta, Finnmark. Hernes works with photography and drawing, often in large scales. Her works are represented in several collections: RiddoDuottarMuseat, Samiske samlinger, Karasjok; SpareBank 1 Nord - Norges kunststiftelse, Tromsø; 2009 Johan Strays Stiftelse, Oslo; 2009 Galleri Van Bau, Vestfossen; Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø; Altaposten, Alta; Alta Kunstforening, Alta; Norsk kulturråd; Museet for samtidskunst, Oslo. She is art consultant and curator for KORO (Norway Public Art).

“Beautiful border” consists of a series of images photographed at the border between Norway and Russia.

When I am close to a border I become tense and frightened.

The situation feels uncomfortable, even if the landscape is beautiful. I am aware that if I take a few steps wrong, I will be punished. Then I will be captured, and a process starts against me. In such a situation, I will be alone, without colleagues, friends or family who can support me. Norwegian police and Russian border guards will ask me questions for many hours. For them I will only be a criminal.

The title “Beautiful border” is ment to show a tension between the words “beautiful” and “border”. The pictures show beautiful sceneries together with elements that tells about excitement and fear.

When I photographed I looked for places that matched the way I felt. I walked at the border at various points from sea to “Treriksrøysa”, where the borders between Norway and Russia and Finland meets. I was aware that the border guards kept an eye on me and were ready to take me as prisoner if I crossed the border.

1)

www.sigfridhernes.no sigf-her@online.no 86

2)

1) “Beautiful border” 2017, Photo x 18 44,1 x 29,4 cm

2) “Beautiful border”

2017, Photo x 18 44,1 x 29,4 cm Read the photos from left to right. In a fysical room they will be mounted in a long line.

87

Aino Hivland

(b.1947) i Bugøyfjord, Norway. Aino Hivland is a Sami visual artist and author. Her work focuses on the areas of painting, drawing, print, illustration, design and art therapy.

1)

www.ainohivand.com ah@ainohivand.com 88

2)

1) Untitled

2015, Acrylic on canvas 80 x 80 cm

2) EPEW

2014, Acrylic on canvas 33 x 41 cm This painting is one of eight that I have painted to the music of Carlos R. Jeldes, from Chile but lives today in Tromsø

89

Ragnhild Adelheid Holten

Her work is a study of painterly processes where the painting occurs in a dynamic balance between liberated action and intellectual scrutiny. The result is an abstract understanding of figurative elements from the northern Norwegian landscape which she is exposed to daily.

Colour is of spiritual importance to her work. She manipulates the hues and nuances until she achieves a strong resonance with her perception of what she wants to convey in her paintings. The common ground of her paintings are the observed variations in nature. The impulses are ranging from the sensing of underlying processes and structures, to the observation of visual form, phenomena, ambience and season. These elements are brought to play in the visual field of the canvas.

Ragnhild Adelheid Holten is well established in an ever expanding atelier in the oldest property in Stokmarknes, VesterĂĽlen. Her studio is open by appointment.

www.adholten.no adholten@gmail.com 90

Horizon, Play

2016, Oil on canvas 122 x 96 cm

91

Rakel Elice Huglen

Born in Stord, currently living in Longyearbyen. Huglen studied History of Art at University of Amsterdam and University of Bergen and holds a MA in Fine Arts from Bergen National Academy of Art and Design.

Throughout the years she been working with different techniques and with different medias, but she always returns to the medium of textile. At the moment she explores the wealth of possibilities in hand embroidery. In the serial lines she experiments with the line created by thin threads and needle stitches.

Works by Huglen are presented in the art collection of the University of Bergen, she`s been exhibited in “Craft� at the National Museum and at KODE - Art Museums of Bergen, Kaunas Textile Biennale and Gallery Svalbard.

www.rakelhuglen.no rhuglen@gmail.com 92

Details from the serial “lines�

2017, Embroidery on cotton Photo: Haakon Sandvik

93

Kjersti Isdal

(b. 1972) Educated at Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen.

Isdal is from Nordhordland, and lives in Stamsund, Lofoten.

In her work she is looking at how people are changing the landscape – and how the landscape is changing people. She is working with techniques such as painting, printmaking, drawing and ceramic.

www.kjerstiisdal.no 94

Wild sheep

2016, Acrylic on canvas 100 x 70 cm

95

Bjørg Heggstad Jakhelln

Born in Horten, lives and works in Bodø.

“I work with geometrical abstractions in my paintings.

Minimalistic compositions, colour, form and texture are what my work is about. Titles may spur the viewer’s own reflections as to content and meaning.”

Heggestad Jakhelln studied at Edinburgh Collage of Art (1959-63) and holds a degree in History of Art from the University of Bergen (Cand.philol. 6 years, 1992)

www.bjorgjakhelln.no bjorg-hj@online.no 96

Towards spring

2014, Oil on canvas 100 x 130 cm

97

Jenny-Marie Johnsen

(b. 1960) Lives and works in Tromsø.

Jenny-Marie Johnsen studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

In 2015 she received a Ten Year Working Grant from The Norwegian Arts Council. Her works are presented internationally and she has been assigned several public art commissions. Johnsen works an Art Consultant for KORO Public Art Norway. Her works are presented in collections of The Art Council Norway, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum Norway, Koro-Public Art Norway.

Jenny-Marie Johnsen describes herself as a painter rather than a photographer, something which emerges clearly in the video Eclipse and the accompanying photo series which were shown at the exhibition In/Between: Localize 2006 in Stamsund. The title is taken from a phenomenon of nature, but what we see is not an example of an actual solar eclipse.

The video and the photo series originate in a completely abstract phenomenon made by the camera lens. This tension between the referential and the non-figurative is one of the most prominent aspects of Johnsen’s work. Although Eclipse allows associations of eclipses and hovering spheres it is also an investigation of the mixture of tempo, movement and colour during the brief time they occur. And in spite of the fact that the work has references to the minimalist, non-figurative and optically oriented parts of modernism, she is not trying to show an autonomous, non-referential work. Rather she presents us with a layer of associations and meanings.

The slow gliding circles give associations not only to spheres hovering through the universe but can also be understood as a symbol of the universal, the world of ideas. The artist connects not only the eternal and the final, the universal and the particular, but also the macro- and micro-cosmos. The hovering sphere can be seen as the egg in the womb. Such associations are easy to make but not necessary. Johnsen is an artist who investigates the mystery of colour, the impact on our senses and what kind of atmosphere is created. There are unlimited possibilities, like in the little universe of the egg.

www.jennymariejohnsen.com j-m.johnsen@online.no 98

Eclipse 2008

99

Wenche Harriet Johansen

I work with textile, drawing and 3D objects in mixed media.

Working with art is for me one way to express the essence from an inner source.

Old symbols, histories, myths, fairytales and museums inspires me to create my own stories in drawings and objects. I often work with themes and my drawings are made with pencils, watercolour pencils, charcoal and soft pastels and my objects in mixed media are often in materials such as iron, paper, porcelain and glass. I often combine paper and glass with iron; welding and blacksmithing.

To fight materials with resistance is for me a challenge and it’s important to enhance the object’s message using different materials. Next to my own art practice I am working as a lecturer, art therapist and run my own gallery connected to my workshop, Galleri Lille Snebakken. My works have been presented through numerous solo and group exhibitions and I have received grants and support from The Norwegian State, Nordland- and Troms County and Saltdal municipality.

1)

wenche.h.johansen@gmail.com 100

2)

1) Kanope-jar “Lifeenergi�

2014, Paper, glue and gesso. Decorated with soft pastell The jar is locked with a symbol iron lock

2) A wooden Kanope caskets with 4.kanope -jars with lids

2014, Paper, glue and gesso Decorated with soft pastell Each are locked with different symbols in iron

101

Irena Jovic

I come from a background where my mother is Norwegian and my father a Bosnian Serb. My production is mainly thematic threefold: Nordland, Spitsbergen and human depictions. The northern part of Norway has been my base for colour studies through both sketches and paintings. Through legends about the mountains’ origin of Leka in the south, along the coast of Helgeland and Lofoten up north, the adventure has accompanied me by foot and at sea. The motives are many and the region’s scenery magnificent. As an extension of this, the desire to investigate the role of the human in nature as well as the management of this, I became interested in the archipelago Spitsbergen.

I first visited the archipelago Spitsbergen in April 2005. I have often returned after this stay with my interest for the nature and the culture in the archipelago as a starting point.

I have found inspiration for my work through a dive into the polar history’s many depictions, combined with the nature’s many contrasts. I was fascinated by the atmosphere and light from the very first moment. Spitsbergen’s nature has much in common with minimalism. The landscape is reduced in shape and it is the light that creates contrasts. Mountains and ice formations are geometric shapes. It is also it’s sobriety and wildness and its brutality that has attracted me, and the fact that there are few women who have painted Spitsbergen.

www.irenajovic.com post@explorenordland.no 102

1) Esmarkbreen II, Oscar II Land 2013, Oil on canvas 80 x 135 cm

2) Kjeglefjella, Nordenskiold Land 2013, Oil on canvas 80 x 135 cm

103

Ingjerd Hansen Juvik

Since 1997 I have been living in Patagonia, Argentina, but my drawings speak about the nature I grew up with.

1)

www.ingjerd.com.ar ingjerdster@gmail.com 104

2)

1) Spiral

2015, Drawing (pencil, lead 0,7 mm) on paper 145 x 200 cm

2) The Invisible Man

2016, Drawing (pencil lead 0,7 mm) on paper 145 x 200 cm

105

Grete Andrea Kvaal

The foundation of my artistic expression is photography.

Most of my projects have consisted of analog black and white images. This is a time consuming process, starting with the development of the film and ending with processing in the darkroom.

I am also exploring the possibilities in alternative techniques, such as transferring images to materials like silk, watercolor paper and glass.

My recent project ÂŤGerminiÂť - a work in progress, is a digital project. I want to show parts of the life of flowers that are not usually seen, - showing the process of dried and dying plants, and the tiny seeds jumping down from the mother plant, joyful and happy to get free and released, - the endless circle.

www.greteandreakvaal.no grete.kvaal@gmail.com 106

Germini 1, Germini 2 2015, Photograph

107

Marit Ellisiv Landsend

Clay-artist since a young age. Fascinated by softness, possibilities for change.

Making glazes, mixing colours. Meeting fire - mere transformation.

1)

www.maritlandsend.no marit.ellisiv.landsend@gmail.com 108

2)

1) Hare

2016, Modeled, raku-fired stoneware clay.

2) The Innocents

2016, Modeled, raku-fired stoneware clay.

From the exhibition ÂŤThe innocentsÂť.

109

Ingrid Larssen

Since 1987 Larssen has worked with jewellery and objects using various techniques and materials. For the past eighteen years, textiles have been her primary art medium. She has explored and experimented with an old embroidery technique called ‘vaffelsøm’ (waffle stitching). Large collar necklaces made of silk and freshwater pearls. Floating, hovering objects inspired by sea life. Decoration “Room for everyone” for the new Nordland Hospital Vesterålen in 2014 and “Travel kb176” for Melbu School in 2016 were executed in wool and sea urchins. Throughout her art career, she has been committed to tradition and innovation. She has experience as an art consultant, curator and project manager. She was awarded and has received Norway’s guaranteed income for artists since 2011.

1)

www.ingridlarssen.no www.norskekunsthandverkere.no/users/ingrid-larssen ingridlarssen62@gmail.com 110

2)

1) Travel

2016, Wool and sea urchins Commission for Melbu School

2) Room for everyone

2016, wool and sea urchins Commission for the new Nordland Hospital VesterĂĽlen

111

Ragnhild Lie

Ragnhild Lie is based in Stamsund, Lofoten since completing her studies at KHiB in 1997. She works project-based and conceptually. In the recent years her focus has been video, installation, performance art and tapestries. Next to her own art practice she is involved with the performing arts and is part of the artist group Kunstrevyen, which holds meetings in Anonymous Petroholics. She is active as a curator and has initiated numerous art projects. The environmental aspect in her work is an important factor along with focusing upon local resources and heightening the awareness towards older techniques. She started her own company Lofoten Wool in 2014.

www.inbetween.no www.ragnhildlie.no ra.lie@online.no 112

1) Frihet, rikhet, dĂĽrskap 2) Eskapisme 113

Harald Lien

(b. 1966) Lives and works in Bodø, Norway.

He was educated at Oslo Tegne og maleskole 1987-89/1991-92 and has had several solo exhibitions including Gallery A, Oslo Tegneforbundet and Bodø Kunstforening.

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/harald-lien lien66@icloud.com 114

The tea party

2017, Oil on wood 55 x 75 cm

115

Ingeborg Annie Lindahl

Ingeborg Annie Lindahl (b. 1981) is an interdisciplinary artist living in Harstad, Northern Norway.

She recived her Master degree from The Bergen National Academy of the Arts (2012) and BFA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art (2010).

Lindahl is mainly working site-specific in several mediums.

She has been most noted for her large scale chalk-drawings and installations. Lindahl’s artistic method combines the outcome from field trips and personal experience of the place. When Lindahl started working with chalk, she was drawn by impermanence and thoughts for expulsion. She has used chalk in several different shapes; as marble, plaster and pigment, playing with the idea of mankind as a early stage of becoming mineral. Lindahl’s work is in many ways performance based, where she is portraying the landscape in a romantic and dramatic manner. Her material substantiates a manifestation of change, both in how knowledge is made and how nature is in a constant state of transformation.

Lindahl is interested in the landscape of echoes in the sphere of human thought, and explore culture and value in our time in relation to nature.

Her work is widely exhibited nationally and abroad, among others by The National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Amy Li Gallery, Beijing, Museum of Nonconformist Art, St. Petersburg, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary art, Copenhagen, Stiftelsen 3,14 Bergen, Bergen, Galleri NordNorge, Harstad. Lindahl is a board member of Artic Arts Festival, Northern Norway. Of curatorial projects ILIOS (Harstad 2017), Sabotage (Innvik, 2014), odds (Odda, 2012) and Ut I min hage (Harstad, 2011) can be mentioned.

www.ingeborgannie.com ingeborgannie@gmail.com 116

2) Passing Passage - Cold Edge

2016, Big scale chalk drawing on wall and black plexiglass floors 8 x 4 x 4 m The National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta

1) Skewed Nature - KE

2015, Big scale chalk drawing on wall and floor 5,3 x 4,5 m Den Frie Centre of Contemporary art, Copenhagen

117

Thor Arne Losnedahl

Thor Arne Losnedahl was born in Bodø, Norway in 1959.

He was educated at Northern Norwegian Art School in KabelvĂĽg and the Art Academy in Trondheim.

He is working mostly with oil paintings as an artist, and as a roller driver on hot asphalt to make a living.

1)

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/thor-losnedahl 118

2)

2) Hus / House

2017, Oil on canvas

1) Vår sol på Røstbanken / Spring sunshine on Røstbanke 2017, Oil on canvas

119

Trygve Luktvasslimo

Trygve Luktvasslimo (b. 1978) holds an MFA in Visual Art from Malmö Art Academy and is based on Valberg in Lofoten. He works in various mediums including: film, performance, photography, text, composition, sculpture and installation.

The scripts and music that become his films bear a strong connection to TV and cinema, and his work grapples with complexities like faith and self-worship. In 2016 he completed A Life With no Echo, a three-part film about the prophetical pop star Thor. The trilogy moves backwards in time, tracing Thor’s trajectory from ending up in the desolate Atacaman desert back to the initial bolt of lightning that completely singed off his sense of self-limitation.

Luktvasslimo co-runs the film production company Figenlukt, he curates public art projects and exhibitions and is a board member of Fond for lyd og bilde (Arts Council Norway).

Luktvasslimo exhibits, screens and performs internationally: Mudstone, 2018 (novel, editor A Published Event/Justy Phillips); KUIR Bogotá (by Geir Haraldseth and Stina Högkvist), 2017; North Norway Art Centre, Svolvær (solo); Festspillutstillingen, 2015; De Appel Arts Centre, 2015; Tromsø International Film Festival, 2015 (At Kurant); Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, 2014; W17/Kunstnernes Hus, 2014; Petter Dass Museum (solo), 2014; Ze Dos Bois, Lisboa, 2014/2013; Sami Centre for Contemporary Art/Luleå Konsthall, 2013; Loose Holes - Portuguese Festival of queer Performance, 2013; Persbo Studio (solo), 2012; Clockwork Gallery Berlin, 2012; Tromsø kunstforening, 2012; Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen 2011; HAU 1 Berlin, 2009; Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest, 2009; Galleri Signal, 2008 & 2004, Henie Onstad Art Centre, 2004.

closertomore.com trygve.l@gmail.com 120

2) “Still 2”: Actress Suzana Borges as Emmy in Closer to More 2016

1) “Still 7”: Trygve Luktvasslimo as derailed pop star Thor in Closer to More 2016

121

Ann-Cathrine Tine Lundkvist

Ann-Cathrine Tine Lundkvist grew up in Solna, Stockholm.

She lives and works in Lofoten, Northern Norway since 1979, working primarily with painting, graphics and sound. “I use nature as support and as a channel for the painting.

I abstract and simplify this to reach a concentration on the painterly and visual issues. The image is formed between shifts from the light to the dark, for simplicity and monumental strength�

www.tinelundkvist.com tine.lundkvist@gmail.com 122

Paintings

2016, Acrylic 30 x 30 cm

123

Anne Mariendal

(b. 1948) Anne Mariendal has been living and working as a painter in the Lofoten Islands from 1975-2014 and is currently living in Fredrikstad.

Mariendal has previously taught painting and drawing at the Northern Norwegian Art School in Kabelvåg, Lofoten.

She has held several individual exhibitions and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, locally and nationally.

Outside of Norway she has participated in group exhibitions in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as the Nordic exhibition “Nordic Women; Painters - Draftswomen”. This exhibition travelled the Nordic countries for a year. She has also taken part in group exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Russia and Kiel, Germany. Her paintings are represented in several National Collections, among others The National Museum of Art, Riksgalleriet and Norsk Kulturråd. Mariendal has received several public art commissions for federal buildings in Norway. Her education is from The National Academy of Art in Oslo, and private tutoring by the painter Rolf Schønfeld.

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/anne-mariendal home@live.no 124

Fragments

2016, Mixed media/acrylic, watercolor, paper, glued on cardboard 11 x 11 cm

125

Dan Mariner

Dan is a British documentary photographer based in Northern Norway. He studied Documentary Photography at the Magnum affiliated Newport University in South Wales.

His main photographic interest lies in anthropology. Within that, He seeks out themes that explore how humans interact with their surroundings and how modern infrastructure and ideology coexists with the natural world.

Dan’s approach to the photographic process sees him working on lengthy research based projects, analysing a story in full before committing to the image making process. He is currently working as a freelance photographer, splitting his time between working on commissioned editorial work and developing his documentary practice.

www.danmariner.com danmariner@gmail.com 126

Drake’s Folly

2016, Documentary photography series

127

Hans Ragnar Mathisen

As a boy I wanted to make sure, and asked my foster-parents: “To be an artist, is that considered work?” “Yes” was the comforting answer, since I had heard the opposite. And work it has been indeed! My professional career started when two of my watercolour paintings were accepted at the Regional Art Exhibition in 1969, and a year later at the National Art Exhibition in 1970, a year ahead of the commencement of my proper art education in Oslo, which lasted until 1979 as a graduate of the Art Academy, followed by extensive travels combining art studies with activities and network building among Indigenous people I met on the way. I had my first solo-exhibition not in a city or town, as was the norm, but in the country’s northernmost and poorest area in the Sámi village of Guovdageaidnu, Easter time 1975, one reason being I had roots there. Since then until now I have been working with a variety of expressions, like drawing, painting, graphic art, installations and have specialized in making maps with Indigenous placenames, decorations and informative texts.

1)

www.keviselie-hansragnarmathisen.net kevipro@online.no 128

2)

1) MU 9510 Oarbbesmánát /Orphans/Foreldreløse barn 1995, Print 4.2 x 3.4 cm

2) ÅARJELSAEMIEH MAADTOE-DAJVE

1999-2017, Pencil, colored pencil, ink on matte plastic wrap 71 x 53 cm

129

Guri Moe

Lives and works in Bodø. Moe studied Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at SHKS / The National College of Art and Design in Oslo and SLFO State Art Teachers Education focus on drawing, Oslo.

She works with watercolour, photography and mixed media and has held several exhibitions. She received Jægtvolden stipendet in Mid-Nordic Art Festival, Inderøy in 2008.

“It is important for me to live by the sea and to be outdoors experiencing the contrasts, changes and repetitions in nature. My watercolour works are often about that. I also like to explore different rooms and spaces and understand how people use the spaces around them. I am very curious by nature and like to experiment with materials, colours, textures and patterns. When I work with textiles I often use old materials and simple techniques to make new objects.

I am very grateful to my parents and other near relatives that in my early age taught me various craft techniques and showed me how to take care of and use different materials and resources. Some of my works are therefore about how our inheritance and memories about our ancestors shapes us and help us to be strong when it is needed.”

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/guri-moe gurimoe@combitel.no 130

Imperfektum

2014–2017, Bedspread Redesign of old blankets from my childhood home. The blankets are dyed, cut, and sewn together edge to edge by hand with self-made wool yarn. Prints with wooden block. In addition five parallel seams goes through the middle of each patch for reinforcement and decor.

207 x 207 cm

131

Eivind Natvig

(b. 1978) Eivind Natvig is a rare species among Norwegian photographers. After years of editorial work, both in Norway and abroad, he has concentrated more and more of his energy on personal narratives, resulting in books and exhibitions in galleries and museums.

“You Are Here Now” (Tartaruga Press) came to life as perpetual road trip during a period of self-imposed homelessness. Natvig lived on the couches of strangers throughout Norway creating a project riddled with juxtapositions. The work is refusing to make a stand or to take sides. But then again, it might not be a question of taking sides.

Through the project “Come, for all is now ready”, Natvig has witnessed the ‘drama of life’ in small islands societies scattered across the polar circle since 2012. The work provide motifs for a distinctive visual expression that exists somewhere between documentary and low-voiced poetry.

Ordinary life, as it has been lived for generations, is the focus. As he himself says: “The normal is more than enough for me”.

Natvig sees photography as a means of discovering new points of view, and a tool for conveying the experiences common to all humankind. At the core of his last body of work, “Today I am a human”, you´ll find a strong social and political conscience researching a century of involuntary migration in the Middle East. His ruminations on life provide a poetic testament to how ordinary life can actually be very profound and astonishing.

Natvig is currently working on one project in the Middle East and one in his native Lofoten.

www.ehn.no 132

You Are Here Now

2015, Photography

133

Hege Annestad Nilsen

(b. 1966) in Hammerfest. Hege Annestad Nilsen was educated at Kunstakademiet i Trondheim (The Art Academy of Trondheim) and works with photography, video, sound and installations. With Finnmark as her base, her works have been shown in a number of exhibitions in Norway and abroad, including Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter (The Northern Norwegian Center for Art), Svolvær, Kunstens Hus i Luleå (The Art House of Luleå) and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

“My works originate in the close relationships with which we surround ourselves: the people we with whom we are together, the places in which we spend our days and the things that surround us.”

www.annestad.no hege.annestad.nilsen@gmail.com 134

Dialogue with Savio 2016, Photography 100 x 100 cm

135

Geir Nustad

The Norwegian artist Geir Nustad makes unique sculptures in glass. Each object is hand blown by himself. He sees his work as reflections, objects that depict change over time. His main source of inspiration is the Norwegian nature and the mountains around Tromsø with their extreme elements which reflect the difference between winter and summer, dark and light. And similar to the world we live in, Geir has through his work, observed how people react to one another, looking at our relationship amongst strangers. This applies especially for his sculptures and grail work.

To give the exterior of his glass work more expression, he has, over time, developed a technique in which the traditional gloss of the glass is replaced by an exterior reminiscent of stone, pottery and metal. The radiant interior with its remaining typical glass qualities ensures a stark contrast with the rough exterior. The work of Geir Nustad is and remains exciting and fascinating as he is always looking for new innovations.

He is an artist who is always experimenting with the dividing lines of craftsmanship, technique and the fine arts Education: 2004–06, Høgtun vgs. Formgivingsfag, Harde- og plastiske materialer 2006-09, Glass school in Kosta, craft education, Kosta Sweden 2009-12, The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

1)

www.geirnustad.com geir.nustad@gmail.com 136

2)

2) Wave - pink pattern 2016

1) Omsorg 2016

137

Inger Anne Nyaas

I work with textiles and other materials related to textile art, from silk organza to old used cotton fabrics printed with different techniques. In some of the pieces I use materials recognizable from the consumer culture, such as plastic bags, bubble wrap with bottle caps and milk cartons.

I explore the possibilities of the material, re-work and transform the original function and give them new meanings.

References to the environment, nature, heritage, textile techniques, ceramic tiles and old woven blankets are some of the associations one can link to these works.

www.facebook.com/lillekabelvaag www.nnks.no/kunstnere/inger-anne-nyaas www.norskekunsthandverkere.no inger.anne.nyaas@hotmail.com 138

cow and sheep

2015, Bottoms of milk cartons sewn together with plant colored wool. Installed on an old wood rake.

200 x 165 cm Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

139

Ina Otzko

Ina Otzko (b.1972) lives and works in Northern Norway and Italy. She holds a dual Master’s from the Image and Communication and Fine Art programs at Goldsmiths College in London and an additional Master’s degree in experimental sound studies from Berlin University of Arts, UdK. Her works are intimate and intense emotive spaces investigating the human condition, drawn from an abounding deposit of her travels and travails. Set against research of the human encounter with time and exploring the complexity between memory and experience, reality and representation and psychological narratives of identity, corporeality, power, human behavior and spiritual ecology, she has created an extensive body of work encompassing video, photography, installations, sculpture, sound, text and performance.

Her works are exhibited widely in Norway and abroad including: The Vasulka Chamber, National Museum of Iceland; Haugar Art Museum; Museum of nonconformist art in St.Petersburg; Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter; Museum Castel dell’Ovo in Naples; Paris Photo; London Art Fair; Sami Center for Contemporary Art; Luleå Kunsthall; Barents Spektakel; Center for Contemporary Art in Arkhangelsk; Directors Lounge Berlin. She participates frequently in AiR programs; recent ones are: The Vasulka Chamber, National Museum of Iceland; NCCA / National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Kronshtadt, St.Petersburg Russia and Kola Residency Road Trip, Russia & Finland / Pikene På Broen (Girls on the Bridge).

Otzko is co-initiator and director of ABH/ ArtBase Helgeland 66°N and its international AiR-Exchange program in collaboration with Kari Elfstedt, curates exhibitions and public art projects and is art consultant for KORO (Public Art Norway). She is lead for NNBK / The Association of North Norwegian Visual Artists since 2015 and member of the Artistic Advisory Board of LIAF / Lofoten International Art Festival.

www.inaotzko.net www.vimeo.com/inaotzko post@inaotzko.net 140

It is the realm we pray upon That something wonderful will happen That there must be

Interiors 15/13

HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Photo Rag Baryta 325g 70 x 105 cm

May you be well May you experience loving kindness May you feel belonging

141

Solveig Ovanger

Solveig Ovanger is an autodidact artist. She qualified for membership in Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts in 1980 and The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists in 2016. She has previously worked with functional objects in leather and fish skin. During the last decade she has turned her attention to sculptures and installations wherein she explores both the material, and it’s associative and visual qualities. The focus have lately been on fish as raw material and inspiration. Solveig Ovanger has had solo exhibitions at North Norwegian Art Centre, Tromsø Art Centre, Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum, Hedmark Art Centre and Gallery of Northern Norway. She has participated in several group and touring exhibitions in Scandinavia, Russia and Iceland. She has received numerous national grants for artists.

1)

www.solveigovanger.no solveig.ovanger@online.no 142

2)

3)

1) HEMISPHERE II

2015, Fish skin (saithe) 60 X 60 X 35 cm Photo: Solveig Ovanger

2) FLOW

2014/15, Fish skin(cod and saithe) 250 x 250 x 6 cm Photo: Heidi Hallseth

3) HEMISPHERE I

2012, Fish skin (saithe) 90 x 90 x 40 cm Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

143

Torunn Ovanger

Watercolour is my favourite painting medium. I apply numerous thin glazes of transparent colours and work my way slowly towards a result. I keep the glazes very delicate in order not to lessen the transparent nature of the medium.

I don’t focus primarily on the motive. I seek to recreate the atmosphere in an experience. It is the ethereal room of colours and light that interests me. I am drawn towards large, limited palette surfaces, where nuances play, creating space and light. I often seek motives by observing the twilight nature. The arctic, dark winter often reflects sophisticated, deep blue and mauve nuances. Painting an untouched landscape is for me a journey to the depth of our perceptions.

1)

www.torunnovanger.com otorunn@gmail.com 144

2)

1) Winter

2015, Watercolour 50 x 60 cm

2) Twilight

2015, Watercolour 50 x 60 cm

145

Kirsten Skaar Pedersen

Born in Tønsberg, lives and works in Bodø. Holds a diploma from The National College of Art and Design in Oslo, Teachers College, Notodden, Practical pedagogy, education for artists and History of art from The University of Bergen. Skaar Pedersen works with tapestries, drawing and painting.

“After my studies I have lived and worked in the northern part of Norway. Some years I practised as a teacher, mostly 50%, in various educational institutions; including primary school, high school and teachers college. But all the time my «real work» has been in the studio; printing textiles, embroidering, drawing, painting and some printing on papers too. I have been doing creative works for public buildings, mostly printed and embroidered tapestries, some of them in combination with painting on plates. The last years I have been working more with pictures, but I still have “good feelings” for the textile material, now in an embroidery/ stitching technique – sometimes in combination with old, well-worn pieces of textile - and my own history maybe... The results are tapestries for walls, both small works and bigger ones. Time is an important part of my works, especially in my tapestries. For me it is a process of reflection and meditation from which I am able to ensure that my artistic vision is released and visible in the work that I do… I think that I am “painting” with the textile pieces and “drawing” with the thread. The ambition for me as a visual artist is to make works in a sort of harmony. I often build the compositions with repetitions of different forms and ornaments in a rhythmic way. It can be geometric figures as well as abstract elements from the nature – and non-figurative forms.

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/kirsten-skaar-pedersen skaarpedersen@yahoo.no 146

Golden moments

2014, Embroidery, textile Photo: Ernst Furuhatt

147

Synnøve Persen

I work with painting and poetry. In my abstract paintings the northern landscape is present through my use of colour, line, air, space; this landscape also mirrors my poetic texts, mainly published in Northern Sami, my mother tongue, the language that gives me ultimate space for poetic expression.

My poems are translated into Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Icelandic, English, Spanish and even a few into Armenian and Chinese.

Synnøve Persen is a poet, visual artist, organizer, critic, translator, lecturer, debater, cultural and political activist, living in Finnmark, the northernmost county of Norway, with borders to Russia and Finland.

Twice nominated to the Nordic Council Literature Prize, in 2006 recipient of the Sami Council Literature Prize and in 2000 the recipient of the Biret Elle Memorial Prize.

Represented in various anthologies in several languages, she has also published two sound books and participated in many festivals performing poetry, alone, together with musicians and even with symphonic orchestra.

She was educated as visual artist at The Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, and moving soon thereafter back to Sápmi, she was a founding member of the Sami Artists’ Group 1978–83.

She has participated in numerous exhibitions, in the Nordic countries, in Europe and with indigenous artists in Venezuela and Canada, beside numerous solo exhibitions. From 2004-2017 she received the Guarantee Revenue from the Norwegian State as a visual artist.

In 2017 participating at documenta 14 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece.

She has worked with unionizing Sami artists, and as such a founder of both the Sami Artists Association and the Sami Writers Association in 1979. Holding positions of trust in Sami and Norwegian artists organizations she has worked for the establishing of institutions for Sami Art, as an Art School, Sami Center for Contemporary Art and a Sami Art Museum.

www.synnovepersen.no synnove.persen@gmail.com 148

1) Bรกitagat

2014, Acrylic 40 x 40 cm Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

149

Ari PyÜrälä

I have an open attitude towards the world. Colours, shapes and events inspire me. Anything around me can tickle my inspiration - a detail on a building wall, a meeting, a song, a picture in a newspaper. I believe in the power of serendipity.

I keep my creative process as open as possible. I let each artwork speak to me and suggest the form it wants to take.

Keeping all doors open it can be liberating and at same times frustrating too, but this free chain of associations is essential for the creation of my jewellery art. Visual harmony, balance between materials and shapes, is always on my mind when I am developing new artworks.

1)

www.koruari.net ari@koruari.net 150

2)

1) Vielä hetki

2015, From the series ‘Walking on Thin Ice’. Acrylic, paint, brass Photo ©Niclas Warius

2) Jeerer

2014, Polyolefin, glass beads, metal Photo ©Niclas Warius

151

Irene Rasmussen

Lives and works in Tromsø. Educated in Firenze, The North Norwegian Art and Film School in Lofoten and The Art academy in Trondheim.

Artistic Approach: Work and projects within various formats and materials, from conceptual work to sitespecific installations. Works with public art. I approach the sitespecific projects with the ambition to express something about the site and the context. I am interested how public space is influenced by political issues.

1)

www.irenerasmussen.weebly.com irerasmussen@gmail.com 152

2)

1) Organized Space�, Model of French Garden for print in snow Foam board 60 x 85 x 3 cm

2) From contaminated soil to fertile ground

2016, Sitespecific project on Tromsø Shipyard Phytoremediation, is a method of restoring natural balance in contaminated soil.

Based on soil analyzes, special crops were planted in several locations on the shipyard to reduce lead, zinc and copper in the polluted ground.

153

Agnes Reiersen

(b. 1950) in Trondheim, lives and works in Bodø.

Reiersen is a painter. Her works are presented in the collections of The Council of Bodø, The Galleries of Art Association in Svolvær and in Hadsel, The County of Finnmark and The Bank of Nordland, Bodø. She has participated in several group exhibitions in North Norway and was presented in the exhibition “A History of Conflict - A Future of Hope” at Frazier Museum in Kentucky USA. Her individual exhibitions have been held in The Art Associations in Bodø, Svolvær, Melbu and Alta. Reiersen has participated in “Art in Nature”, a Biennale in Kjerringøy and performed during the composer Ida Heidels Contemporary music concert in Bodø Concert Hall. Agnes Reiersen is the co-owner of Det lille galleri in Bodø.

“The abstract art has always fascinated me. Through different methods, like intuition, fabulation or testing, my work emerge. In my paintings, the tracks from the coats underneath are important elements. Textiles, architecture, nature, casual occurrences and life among people inspires me. It is all about to be present, and to work with the impression.”

www.allfarvei.com agnes.reiersen@gmail.com 154

November

2015, Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm

155

Ingunn Moen Reinsnes

In VesterĂĽlen, where I live, and during travels I have taken in the northern regions- Northern Russia, Iceland and Spitzbergen, I find inspiration for painting the natures essence and being, which is also found inherent in humans.

I listen to nature and try to communicate this to the canvas.

This is really a Zen Buddhist exercise more than pure recreation/representation of nature.

I have roots in both the Sea Sami and the ethnic Norwegian population of VesterĂĽlen and Steigen. Both of these groups have lived here and they were dependent on what they could glean from nature. Through assimilation of the Sami people and the Norwegians, the Sami culture has lost out to the Norwegian.

As a parallel to this nearly lost culture, I see human dominance over nature as a losing prospect because of the greed. To acquire material wealth. This is possibly our last chance to prevent this injustice perpetrated on the Sami culture and against nature itself. As an artist from the periphery, I have duty and a desire to make this point through my art.

1)

www.123hjemmeside.no/reinsnes ingunnjmr@hotmail.com 156

2)

1) glugge

2016, Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm

2) inferno

2016, Oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm

157

Peter Rust

I am educated as a classical goldsmith. This craftsmanship is the basis for my work.

But quite early I started to explore the three-dimensionality of the ring. I pushed it so far that the rings became wearable sculptures which can be worn on a finger or stand alone as an object.

With those works I focus on the greatness in smallness, the tension between materials, proportions, dynamics and statics. At the same time they are visualizations of impressions, thoughts or perceptions. This sometimes can be obvious but mostly quite hidden.

1)

www.silverwork.no/kunsthandverk/kunsthandverk_fs.htm peterrust@trollnet.no 158

2)

1) #127

Ring/small skulpture, silver, mother of pearl 5,4 x 6,2 x 4,0 cm

2) #150

Ring/small skulpture, silver, mother of pearl 4,7 x 5,4 x 3,4 cm

159

Evelyn Scobie

Evelyn Scobie (b. 1943) lives on an island North of the Arctic Circle. It’s a place where contrasts meets; in nature and climate, light and dark and suits her temperament. Textile is her main material, both two-and three-dimensional, but over the last 10-15 years she’s been assigned commissions that has required developing works in other materials.

Steel structures, acrylic glass collages and installations with natural materials such as linen and turf. She has collaborated with other artists and/or children and young people through various projects which she finds challenging but also provides new approaches and inspiration. To be in the PRESENT, both socially and emotionally, is a necessity for her to be able to create new visual expressions and works.

www.nnks.no/kunstnere/evelyn-scobie e-scobie@online.no 160

Between

1997, Installation from the international peat symposium, Kankaanpaa, Finland.

Collaboration with the landscape architect Anne Kaurin.

161

Sabine Seifert

Born in Germany. Master goldsmith; jewelry desiger.

Established her own workshop in Norway, 1998. Returned to Germany, 2012. “My design is basically about plain and simple shapes in a timeless and powerful beauty. My fascination on minimalism creates a landscape for your own imagination�

www.schmuck-seifert.de info@schmuck-seifert.de 162

progression

2015, Sterling silver, 14ct gold 100 x 100 cm

163

Silja Skoglund

Silja Skoglund has blown glass since 1994. In 2002 she initiated and founded the glass studio Blüst in Tromsø and is the artistic leader and head of workshop. The workshop is mainly keeping a production line, but they also make special projects such as lighting, installations, and sculptures. Silja Skoglund has been studying hot sculpting the last five years with masters, Jiri Pacinek, Karen Willenbrink and Rob Stern.

1)

www.blaast.no silja@blaast.no 164

2)

1) The Golden Egg

2016, Hotsculpted glass, blown glass h15 cm

2) Golden Venus

2015, Hot sculpted glass 25 x 20 cm

165

Marita Isobel Solberg

(b. 1977) from Manndalen in North Troms, an artist based in Tromsø. Many know her as Mara from Maras and Mara & The Inner Strangeness.

Solberg is a graduate of Nordland Art and Film School and The National Academy of The Arts in Oslo, where she studied between 1997-2007. In recent years she devided her time between New York and Tromsø. In addition, she travels on missions with her art and collaborations to many parts of the world.

Marita cooperates and/or holds regular dialogues with artists and curators like; Stuart Brisley, Francesco Ducato, Aslaug Juliussen, Jill McDermid, Manuel Vason, Richard Demarco (Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramović, Paul Neagu), Robert Wilson, Yoshitomo Nara, Terry Smith, David Thorp and Linda Mary Montano. In addition, she is involved in several artistic projects like The Ephemeral Arts Connection, Tromsø Open and Sámi Dáiddamusea (A Performance Museum through NNKM and RDM).

In the borderland between art, life and science are her main focus on sound, performance art and installation. She explores a world of stories, symbolics, biology, challenge, unfamiliarity, melancholy and desire, and addresses issues and stories from different places and what lies beneath the surface. With these tools, she creates new pictures, rituals and metaphors. Her work is often relational, reinforced by a strong performative tension.

www.maritaisobelsolberg.virb.com misobel@gmail.com 166

BREADPRAYERS A prayer A hope A wish All our wishes Everything for the dream of our possibilities

167

Philipp Spillmann

I am rooted in a traditional education of goldsmithing in Switzerland. This is the foundation of my work. My passion for the craftsmanship has stayed on while I am challenging the role of jewellery. I try to wipe out the boundaries between jewellery, object, sculpture and installation. My work contains various materials, including garbage, abandoned objects and precious metals. It has been a playful journey to explore the shapeability of unknown materials and combine them with familiar elements or metals. I have always been fascinated by the dynamics of graffiti and cartoons which is reflected in many of my creations. My work is questioning and illustrating serious matters with a humoristic undertone. There is a thin line between humour and seriousness.

I have participated in national and international exhibitions and my works are represented in the collections of The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and KODE-The Art Museums of Bergen.

1)

www.norskekunsthandverkere.no/users/philipp-spillmann spillmann786@hotmail.com 168

2)

1) Round’n’round

2016, Carved, assembled. Teak stool, gold 25 x 20 cm Photo: Kjell S.Stenmarch

2) Idun(Heinz)

2016, Carved, assembled. Hi-macs(industrial offcuts), steel needle, silver Photo: Kjell S.Stenmarch

169

Bjørn Tore Stavang

With a personal urge to push the impact of my paintings further, it’s been important for me to experiment with 3-dimensional principles. In the previous years I’ve been working with shaped canvases, simulating flat objects, such as mirrors, doors, and tv-screens. Sometimes with incorporated video, light, or sound effects. The works can be described as extensions of the present surroundings, emerging as parallel realities. Essential topics for me is the fragmentation of our reality, and certain alienating structures in society.

Now, instead of expanding the paintings beyond their own limits, I have gradually turned the focus inward. This has evolved into the square format, Kazimir Malevich’s zeroform. With the working title, Doodle Maps, I am painting in an automated manner. This series reflects both my working method/mindset, and a google-based culture in a globalized world. Parts of the paintings describes a fragmentary mass, a “dark matter”. Archetypal shapes and objects similar to the industrial era occurs as in a mutating process.

Combining the unconscious with the controlled can go either way, and maybe that is what painting is all about; groping in the dark. There are no answers, only suggestions, and things similar.

www.btstavang.no btstavang@hotmail.com 170

Timeline

2017, Acrylic/oil on canvas 115 x 115 cm

171

Elisabet Alsos Strand

Elisabeth is born in Mo i Rana (1963) and lives and works in Trondheim. She holds a MFA from The Bergen Academy of Art and Design and was awarded a PhD in Art from The Matejko Art Academy of Krakow (Poland). She has worked as a printmaker for more than twenty years. Her images consists of shades and colours printed on delicate Japanese paper.

Elisabet has participated in numerous exhibitions, including Bodø Kunstforening, Bodø / Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum, Førde / Norske Grafikere, Oslo / International Print Triennial, Krakow, Poland.

“In 2015 I graduated from The Art Academy in Krakow having researched the Japanese woodblock printing technique mokuhanga and it’s links to the Eastern philosophy and aesthetics. I make my prints by hand using water colours.

The colour imprinted on the paper becomes integrated and the quality of the paper is visible through the layers of ink.

Printing with mokuhanga allows for subtleties and variations that gives the prints it’s painterly qualities. The paper is handmade with different textures and thicknesses, and has the character of being an object in itself. It is suitable for laminating on various backgrounds such as panels or fabric.

The larger formats I often print with layers of oil based ink until the colours get their desired depth and saturation. I also frequently explore the subtle nuances of a limited colour palette using the grey shades of black and the opportunities of texture that this water-based printing method allows. A Northern landscape and elements of nature are often the source for my work. Inspired by Eastern aesthetics and philosophy I explore the art of subtleties, searching for essence, often leaving parts of the paper untouched so that the gaze of the viewer finds space for their own vision. I wish to invite the public into an experience of tranquillity, silence and reflection as a contrast to our everyday flicker of images and sound impressions.”

www.elisabet.no post@elisabet.no 172

From the Series Portholes 2017, Woodblock Print 66 x 66 cm

173

Arvid Sveen

Arvid Sveen (b. 1944) is a visual artist, photographer and graphic designer. His art has been acquired by The North Norwegian Museum of Art, Arts Council Norway, Kemi Museum of Art (Finland), Kulttuurihistoriallinen Museo (Finland), RiddoDuottarMuseat - Sámi Art Division, Sparebank 1 - Nord-Norges Kunststiftelse. As a graphic designer, he has created 52 coats of arms for Norwegian municipalities.

Arvid Sveen is often working with thematic series over longer time spans. Important projects are: Rock Carvings Photos, drawings and text about the rock carvings of Jiepmaluokta/Alta.

Book published in Norwegian, English, German, French 1996.

Mythical Landscapes Black and white photos and text about sami sacrificial sites and sami mythology.

Book 2003, exhibitions in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark 2003-2007.

Horizons / Frozen Horizon Photos; square images where sea and sky play equal parts.

Frozen Horizon is from the ice covered Arctic ocean.

Exhibitions in Norway, Denmark, Faroe Island, Finland 20002012.

Tinden, portraits Photos of the most central mountain of Tromsø; Tromsdalstind, the same changing image through three years.

Book 2006, exhibitions in Norway, Finland, Denmark 20062012.

Northern Discoveries Documentary photos of objects alongside 28 000 km of road of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia 2007-2012; a contemporary archaeological investigation of things and their meaning. Book under production.

Blåmannen Photos; portraits of the mountain Blåmannen with and without planes lifting of from Tromsø Airport. Work in progress.

www.arvidsveen.com arvid.sveen@gmail.com 174

One hundred blue men with friends Photo collage

175

Grethe WintherSvendsen

Here, where I live, life has been the same for centuries; weather, fishing, the seasons, which overlap each other in continual drama.

From my window I see dramatic mountains, In a steep dive to the ocean floor.

I’m good at saving things, And I ponder over who I am and where I’m going , I remember, I save.

I collect grief and gather the sun.

I forget, I love, create, sleep, and gather blueberries In Great-Grandmothers meadow.

I hear and I see.

I draw expression out of my hands, into my materials.

I will not imply more than that I endeavor.

I dig where I’m standing.

www.grethewinther.no grewint@icloud.com 176

NaturEscape

Solo exhibition

177

Scott Thoe

Scott Thoe, Norwegian-American artist, has lived and worked for nearly 40 years in the Lofoten Islands, He was educated in literature at University of Washington and Harvard University, M.A., Ph.D., with his art education from The College of Art in Kiel, Germany, and The Academy of Art in Cracow, Poland. He is represented in Poland in the National Museums in Warsaw and in Gdansk, in Russia in the National Museum in Syktyvkar and the Contemporary Museum of Art in Koryazhma, as well as in pubic collections in Norway and America. In Europe he is mostly known for his large murals on public buildings and for his sculptural peace project “Tanks of Peace,� a bridge of tanks on the Polish-German border. In 1993 he was permitted to present the tanks sculpture project before the Duma, the Russian parliament, the first foreigner to do so.

1)

www.scott.thoe.no scott2@online.no 178

2)

1) Ice Angler 2) King of the Mountain 179

Vebjørg Hagene Thoe

Vebjørg Hagene Thoe (b. 1953) in Fredrikstad. Lives and works in Stamsund in The Lofoten islands. She is educated as a textile artist at The Academy of Art in Cracow, Poland, however her practice also includes performance, photography and installations. She frequently cooperates with the composer Tuomo Haapala for productions such as Barents Spektakel with “Iron and Silk”(2012) and Stamsund Theatre Festival with “The Continents move in the night.”

Her last show with music and performance was recently presented in The National Museum of Tanzania – an installation about colonialism before and now - “The Lost Diamond” (2017).

She has received several national grants and prizes, including for her work with art organizations and establishing art schools for children. Having a background as a missionary child in Tanganyika, Hagene Thoe has engaged in art projects in several African countries, working with colleagues from Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. For three years she served as an international board member of “MFUKO”-Tanzania Cultural Trust Fund. She has built up a residency program with other artists on the island at Kunstkvarteret Lofoten, where local artists rent studios along with international guests. Hagene Thoe has exhibited in Norway, Sweden, USA, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Iceland, Tanzania and Russia, and she has served in the executive committee for the Norwegian National Artist Union NBK and is a lecturer for Nord University.

Since 2001 she runs “Galleri 2” in Stamsund together with Scott Thoe, where they show exhibitions with international artists and occasionally from The National Museum in Oslo.

In the duo “Lofoten Ladies” she works with Grethe WintherSvendsen developing programs for refugees and schools focusing on self- esteem and identity and have researched new methods with support from The National Culture Fund.

www.vebjorg.hagene.thoe.no www.galleri2.no vebjorg@online.no 180

In the Hold 181

Espen Tollefsen

(b. 1963) in Narvik, Norway.

Lives in Oslo and Andøya, Norway.

Works with art projects based on photography.

The starting point for much of his artwork can be found in his origins by the rugged seashores in Vesterålen.

His affinity with landscape is evident in his work.

He works to commission and independently, with galleries, architects, and designers. He is using a wide range of techniques including contemporary stained glass based on photography.

In Andøy he is a part of Atelier Nøss, an artist run gallery.

In Oslo he is a member of Lavetthuset Artist´s Studio.

1)

www.espentollefsen.no post@espentollefsen.no 182

2)

1) Element

2016, Section of photo installation from the exhibition in Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, SvolvĂŚr

2) St Konrad, Catholic church, Berlin

2011, Commissioned stained glass. Airbrushed enamel colours and sandblast on glass

183

Siri Tollefsen

(b. 1968) in Sortland, Norway.

Educated at Bergen Academy of Art and Design and Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Graduated in 1998. Lives and work in Andøya, Vesterålen.

Work with digital graphic art, and textile art and design.

Member of the artist family studio and gallery: ”Atelier Nøss”.

All five members of the Tollefsen family works in different fields of art, craft and design. They meet several times a year in the island of Andøya in the Vesterålen archipelago in Northern Norway. Together they run ”Atelier Nøss”, a gallery and art studio on Andøya, which gathers the creative energies of the Tollefsen family.

www.siritollefsen.no www.atelier-noss.com siri_tollefsen@hotmail.com 184

Samlerne-2

2016, Digital graphic work

185

Espen Tversland

Espen Tversland is a Norwegian visual artist who studied at Statens Kunstakademiet, Oslo. He was born in the south of Norway and grew up in different cities of all corners of Norway including a brief stay in Sweden. He works in several different media using various techniques which he integrates into his main form of expression: digital video, digital image processing and animation. His works have been displayed in several shows and film festivals in Norway and abroad.

Espen uses the point where humans and nature intersect as a starting-point and sparring partner in his artistic work.

His artistic process involves solo-treks through nature where he enters a performance-like state to allow creative processes to arise between him and the environment. He draws sketches, records spontaneous singing and video clips to capture moments which he then processes in the studio to produce the finished video pieces. The format of choice is short sequences (1-10 minutes long), digitally treated and combined with animation, which result in a visual expression fitting the personal experience of nature and the wider artistic concept. The videos reproduce the experiences in an abstract, mystical, surreal, and concrete fashion.

www.etversland.wordpress.com tversland@gmail.com 186

1) Onwards

Video still

2) Blackmoon

Video still

187

Kristin Tårnes

Kristin Tårnes (b. 1985) is a visual artist who lives and works in Tromsø, Norway. In her work she is interested in investigating different topics related to the place or region where she lives. Her investigations most often result in narrative films, or social events or publications, sometimes in collaboration with others. Her recent projects include investigations of the last remaining industry in the city of Tromsø, contradictions between traditional Sami belief and modern bureaucracy, and a plant’s journey from the gardens of the upper class in Northern Norway to becoming an invasive and unwanted species.

Tårnes holds a Master of Fine Art from Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, with parts of her degree from Kunsthochschule Weisensee in Berlin and Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City. Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as SPRING/BREAK Art Show (New York, USA), Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter (Svolvær, Norway), RAM galleri (Oslo, Norway), Kunsthall Stavanger and Havremagasinet (Boden, Sweden). She was one of the initiators of the studio collective TKF-loftet, she has been involved in the artist run space Kurant for several years and she is now a member of the board at the North Norwegian Art Museum.

www.kristintarnes.net kristin.tarnes@gmail.com 188

Hverdagslige framtidsfabuleringer (Everyday fabulations of the future) 2016, Video stills, 14 min Collaboration with Kristina Junttila

189

Elin Øyen Vister

Øyen Vister is a multidisciplinary artist working with sensory walks, field recording, installation, composition, performance, organic sculpture, improvisation, radio and site-specific interventions. They are occupied with listening as an artistic practice, in ways of composing, sensing and experiencing the world; inspired by the late philosopher and composer Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening practice. Queer, decolonial, ecological and intersectional perspectives, inform their research and practice.

One of their ongoing projects, Soundscape Røst, listens to the rapidly changing natural and cultural sound environments of the Røst archipelago in Nordland, Norway/Sápmi. They are part of running Røst AiR; communal artist workshop and AIR program on Skomvær Lighthouse Station, in Lofoten since 2012.

1)

www.childofklang.no www.souncloud.com/leynarrecordings www.rostair.com www.soundscaperost.com www.lydersomnordland.no elin.vister@gmail.com 190

2)

1) Røster III

2016, Sound installation, 8 speakers Photo: Norith Eckbo

2) The Puffin

2015, Performance Photo: Tejal Shah

191

Åsne Wold

I live and work in Kabelvåg in Lofoten. Here I have my own studio where I work with painting, mainly in techniques of acrylic and oil. My art education is from The Art Academy in Trondheim, and Vestlandets Art Academy in Bergen. I have had several exhibitions, both solo and together with other artists. I am concerned with several kinds of motifs and themes in my paintings. Humans, and human life is the subject of numerous images. The painting “Life flame” is one of these images and is inspired by Edvard Munch’s “Livsfriser”- friezes of life. I often use colour expressively, and will show the many states and emotions in the human life. Poetry and imagination are important in my art. I play with colours, lines and contrasts towards expression. The people in my pictures are often in motion; they dance, float, travel. I have worked for several years with dance as a motive in the images, often from disco/nightlife environment where people dance. In other paintings are landscape motifs, often inspired by Lofoten landscape where I live. I try to look beyond the naturalistic, and find the magic and poetic expression in these landscapes.

An artistic vision I have is that the images can seize life’s innermost essence and power. I want to produce images like glowing jewels, concentrates so that those who see the pictures have an experience that touches and creates recognition and clarity.

1)

www.atelierwold.no atelierwold@gmail.com 192

2)

1) Life flame

2016, Oil on canvas 70 x 130 cm

2) Horizon

2016, Oil on canvas 30 x 30 cm

193

Karin Hay White

I use geometry, colour and form to explore the tension between pure abstraction and pictorial representation.

1)

www.karinhaywhite.com karin.haywhite@hotmail.com 194

2)

1) Reflection

2016, Acrylic on canvas

2) Under the Surface

2016, Acrylic on canvas

195

Kajsa Zetterquist

Kajsa Zetterquist was born in Arvika in 1936. After studies at different art schools, she spent 1957–63 at The Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. Kajsa Zetterquist is profoundly inspired by rhythm and it’s presence in the human body and in music. Her paintings, mostly acrylic, often receives public and collegial acclaims as representing gifts of life force. Kajsa Zetterquist moved to Northern Norway in the sixties where she resides with her partner, Per Adde.

She is honoured both nationally and regionally for her contribution to organizing artists and establishing regional public art centers in Northern Norway. She was central in the development of the first art school in Nordland County.

Her public art enlightens everyday life of people in public institutions all over Norway, as do her paintings through national and international exhibitions. She and her husband received “Gallery Adde –Zetterquist” as a gift from Nordland County. The gallery opened in 2013, with a permanent exhibition donated from the artists.

Early in life, I gained insights and earned experiences from the multifaceted essence of art, the wonders of poetry, the poetic moment. Recognizing that all art stem from the same source, a rhythm that resonance the heart. I also experienced, in a determining way that real art will always be both working with what exist outside the limits of time – as visual art, poetry or music. The innermost qualities the visual, expressed through the powers of form, colour, surface and volumes, can be released through the work of art and its liberating power. This touches timeless expressions, spontaneously accessible and challenging in one and same moment. Such experiences could find parallels in humans’ encounters with nature – a first and direct confrontation opens channels through which a deeper, poetic and more meditative understanding can grow.

www.addezetterquistkunstgalleri.no 196

Til Felicia

2016, Acrylic 150 x 80 cm

197