Araber,110x170, 2017.
Artist of the Month, Norway
Staging stories of the human condition The Norwegian painter Henriette Emilie Finne has created a name for herself within the Scandinavian art world with her innovative style and sensibilities. The acclaimed visual artist with a colourful background has had almost 90 exhibitions so far, with new, separate exhibitions coming up this year in May and August. By Maria Vole | Photos: Henriette E. Finne
A bright spark on the Norwegian art scene, Finne has been represented at several galleries in recent years, and her works have been purchased by several large companies. After achieving an MA from what is now the National Academy of Arts in Oslo (KiO), with a Major in Fine Arts (MFA), Finne has had almost 30 separate art exhibitions as well as 60 collective exhibitions in her career so far. Born and raised in Oslo, Finne quickly revealed herself to be curious at heart and 124 | Issue 134 | March 2020
deeply interested in the world around her. An adventurous spirit, Finne was part of an underground creative environment in Hamburg in the 1980s. Her bohemian lifestyle and artistic endeavors took her travelling across Scandinavia and Germany in a modified police truck from the 1950s, alongside a magician- and-pantomime artist. She lived in a cave for four months on the shores of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, before she decided to apply to the Norwegian National Academy of Art in Oslo.
As an art student in the 1990s, Finne also had a short stay in Berlin, at Akademie der Künste (AdK), through the Erasmus exchange programme. Finne immersed herself in the liberal arts scene of the city, conducting research as part of her arts degree. During her time there, her studies were driven by the narrow confines of gender roles that lock individuals into either masculine or feminine beings. She found an interest in the duality and complexity of human beings. This was inspired by several authors, including C. G. Jung, who wrote about anima and animus: the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a man possesses, and the masculine ones within a woman. Finne’s international sensibilities and wealth of experiences have certain-