Art Collection, University of Agder ( Krs)

2025

University of Agder Art Collection: Campus Kristiansand

University of Agder Art Collection Campus Kristiansand

Mette-Line Pedersen Senior Advisor/Curator for UiA Art Collection

Art and visual experiences at the University of Agder The art collection at the University of Agder (UiA) is experienced daily by students, staff and visitors. What kind of effect does art in public spaces have on us?

Is art something that is just there, or do you actually notice it?

Contemporary art often poses more questions than it answers and can therefore be perceived as out of reach. Our goal is to make the art at UiA accessible to everyone and create space for curiosity, joy and reflection.

Over the years, UiA has received its art collection both as gifts and through purchases, often supported by various funds. The Decorations Fund (KORO) has also been instrumental in funding and initiating projects of high artistic quality. The collection consists of national and international contemporary art, and we are proud to say that we have the world’s largest collection of Beat art. It was donated by Reidar Wennesland in 1978. The majority of the Beat collection is located in building B at UiA’s Campus Kristiansand, while, for example, the copper engraving collection is on display at Campus Grimstad (see the book Connecting Lines sold at SiA Bok for further information).

The art collection has been expanded in recent years and today consists of paintings, photos, graphic prints from Kristiansand Grafiske Verksted, ceramics, collages, installations and drawings. New works of art are constantly being purchased. The recently constructed top floors of the F, G, H, I and J buildings in Kristiansand and the new building on Campus Grimstad have all been given new public art, as well as the new building on Campus Grimstad (i4Helsebygget).

UiA places great importance on the dissemination of art reaching the largest possible audience and places great emphasis on dissemination; via exhibitions, teaching, social media, websites, videos, books and brochures. This catalogue presents a selection of KORO art, Beat art and contemporary art, which are scattered around the various faculties and in social zones on campus. There are also other art collections at UiA that are not represented in this catalogue.

The Beat Art Collection (Wennesland Collection) In 1978, Reidar Wennesland (1908-1985) donated his entire art collection to Kristiansand Cathedral School and Agder Regional College. The large Beat art collection is the most famous, consisting of works from both well-known and unknown artists.

KORO collection KORO, or the Decorations Fund as the institution was originally called, was established by Parliament in 1976. Since then, they have worked to ensure that art is produced for public buildings and outdoor spaces on a large scale.

More information about the KORO collection is available here:

The state’s collection of art in public spaces has become an important part of Norwegian art heritage. It is located in around a thousand different places nationally and internationally and contains significant works by key national and international artists. Every year, it is supplemented with new works of art from hundreds of visual artists, craftsmen and photographers.

KVG/Cultiva collection In 2013 303 different prints were donated to UiA from Kristiansand Grafiske verksted, in collaboration with Cultiva. The collection is scattered and is found in social spaces on both campuses. It is often used for educational purposes and the artists are: Kjell Nupen, Per Fronth, Ørnulf Opdal, Kjell Erik Killi Olsen, Ida Lorentzen, Frans Widerberg, Åke Berg, Ulf Nilsen, Bjørn Carlsen, Erik Formoe, Lars Løken, Per Ove Sødal, Lise Birkeland, Silje Heggrem, Tore Juell, Ingrid Forfang, Kari Svensen, Louis Boujalans, Ole Ertzeid, Jonas Daatland, Tone Midtbø, Patrick Huusee, Asle Nyborg, Ola Steen, Tony Higginson, Sol Nodeland, Johan Otto Weisser, Heidi Øyseth, Tone Kjønningsen, Erik Pirolt, Siri Sandell, Trine Folmoe, Unknown Artist.

More information about the Art Collection at UiA is found on our website

KORO

Raise boys and girls the same way The artistic adornments of UiA Campus Kristiansand stands out compared to previous Decoration Fund projects by both taking the architecture into account and by being an expression of the functionality that the architecture forms the framework for.

Based on the building’s function as an educational institution/ university, the KORO decoration committee chose ‘gender and education’ as the theme with the title Raise boys and girls the same way and has collaborated with a consultant from the Institute for Gender Research.

Two artists, Jenny Holzer and Per Inge Bjørlo, have created the art for three modules: Vrimlehallen, outdoor area and entrance. Jenny Holzer’s installation mainly consists of 10 granite benches and a table endowed with truisms on campus. Per Inge Bjørlo has made a tall sculpture for the main entrance.

In addition, Mette Stausland created a mural in the canteen. For meeting rooms and break rooms, works by artists in the field of photography have been purchased. These relate to the decorative concept of “gender and education”.

Signe Marie Andersen, Jeanette Christensen, Tone-Lise Magnussen, Eline Mugaas, Torill Nøst (three works moved to Campus Grimstad), Tom Sandberg and Mette Tronvoll.

Raise boys and girls the same way Hvor er det på UiA?

Vrimlehallen and campus:

Jenny Holzer, Installation for Agder

Main entrance (sculpture):

Per Inge Bjørlo, Skal/Kranium

Building A: Canteen wall:

Mette Stausland, Untitled

Building D: Break room, 3rd floor: Break room, 3rd floor: Break room, 3rd floor:

Mari Slaattelid, Protective Mari Slaattelid, Åsne and Malin with milk Mari Slaattelid, Åsne and Malin with water

Building G: Break room downstairs: Break room upstairs:

Jeanette Christensen, Point of departure Jeanette Christensen, Point of departure

Building H: Break room upstairs: Eline Mugaas, Untitled Meeting room: Mette Tronvoll, Isortoq#2, Isortoq#21 Meeting room, downstairs: Astrid Nondal, Grass I, Grass II Corridor, downstairs: Astrid Nondal, Grass III Astrid Nondal, Wooden Shadows Reception: Per Inge Bjørlo, Heads of Balance Building I: Break room downstairs: Break room upstairs: Meeting room: Reception:

Mette Tronvoll, George, Muritz National Park Tone-Lise Magnussen, Landscape Tom Sandberg, Untitled Per Inge Bjørlo, Heads from Balance

Building J: Break room downstairs: Break room upstairs: Meeting room: Reception:

Mette Tronvoll, Matthew, Muritz National Park Signe Marie Andersen, No fishing Tom Sandberg, Untitled Per Inge Bjørlo, Heads from Balance

When artwork is moved due to renovations and changes at the premises, the information is updated regularly on KORO’s website.

Per Inge Bjørlo Skal/Kranium Sculpture KORO Location: Outside the main entrance

Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) is one of the foremost female American contemporary artists, known for her strong visual messages.

The closest we get to an artistic celebrity at the University of Agder are through the works of the American visual artist Jenny Holzer. Holzer’s black, massive granite benches and tables with poetic texts characterise both the outdoor and indoor areas of Campus Kristiansand, and were part of the public KORO decoration for the building in 2001. Initially, she wanted to become an abstract painter, but in 1976, while studying at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, she began to use words and narratives in her works. The program’s long reading list of classical aesthetics and intellectual texts inspired her visual use words.

Her first artwork with words as a theme was created in 1977 and is called Truisms (truths). The work consists of a number of statements or aphorisms that are presented as truths that the viewer encounters in public spaces, on street walls, windows, benches, phone booths, T-shirts and advertising billboards. She has also positioned them as TV commercials, and the texts have, among other things, rolled across a giant electronic signboard in New York’s Times Square.

The texts are printed in large block letters and appear as authoritarian truths about life, suffering, evil and death. About sexuality, about gender roles and about who we are as people. In their new contexts, the texts are constantly taking on new meanings. Are they true?

All of Holzer’s later works are derivatives and continuations of Truisms.

In the series Inflammatory Essays, she works with quotations from Trotsky, Hitler and Mao, in Lamentations, she gives the voice of 13 suffering souls, in Mother and Child, she problematizes the mother/ child relationship, and in Under a Rock, the texts are printed on sarcophagi to give the messages a deeper resonance, to name a few of her later works.

Photo: Amanda Demme

Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer, Truisms (1980-82), Sandblasted text in black Finnish granite, KORO Location: The lawn

Jenny Holzer Arno (1996) Sandblasted text in black Finnish granite KORO Location: Vrimlehallen

Amale Larsen Rot (2023) Painting on canvas UiA Art Collection Location: Building A, meeting room, sixth floor

Photo: Mette-Line Pedersen

Foto: privat

Mari Slaattelid

Mari Slaattelid (b. 1960) is a Norwegian contemporary artist.

Slaattelid works mainly with paintings, but is known for mixing in elements from photographs and other people’s paintings. Slaattelid is a graduate of the Bergen School of Arts and Crafts (1979-1983), The West Norway Academy of Art (1985-1987) and the National Academy of Fine Arts (1987-1989). She also has a background in art history from the University of Bergen.

At Campus Kristiansand, Mari Slaattelid is part of the KORO collection with the following 3 photographs; Protective, Åsne and Malin with milk, and Åsne and Malin with water.

Protective 1-4 (2000) is a series consisting of four photographs, in which Slaattelid has photographed her own daughter in a classic frontal portrait position. We sense both defiance and pride, but also melancholy, emptiness, and vulnerability.

The young girl’s face is covered with an adult woman’s face mask.

What is the message? Is there a message? Are there links between makeup and art? Should makeup and art beautify reality? Cover up or forge? Should the cream highlight the surface or protect the skin?

Viewing contemporary art is about asking questions, and trying to understand the relationship between art and society.

Slaattelid has been purchased by a number of galleries and museums, such as Astrup Fearnley Museet and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She won the Carnegie Art Award in 2000.

Mari Slaatelid, Protective 1-4 (2000), Photography, KORO Location: Building D

Mette Stausland Uten tittel (2003) Drawing on wall KORO Location: Canteen

Tom Sandberg Tom Sandberg (1953-2014) is a Norwegian visual artist and photographer. Sandberg has worked with photography since the 1970s and was considered one of Norway’s most important contemporary artists before he passed away in 2014.

The photograph on display at UiA was purchased by KORO in 2001.

The face is not visible, and we can only assume that it is a woman because of the hairstyle. The picture elicits questions from the viewer: Who is she? Where is this? Why is the face concealed? It is a brief moment and we do not know what has happened before or what will happen afterwards. In general, we can define a portrait as an image or a depiction of a particular person’s individual characteristics, in the visual arts most often through a face, in literature the inner and outer qualities of persons. Although many portraits try to reproduce the model as correctly and similarly as possible, all portraits are more or less deliberate interpretations of a personality or role.

Portraits have always been relevant and debated. Unlike other art genres, “everyone” has an opinion about the portrait genre. Why? The genre’s main purpose – historically – has been as a marker of class consciousness and status. Portrait painting was expensive and reserved for higher social classes, but this situation changed with the advent of photography.

In our time, there has been a democratisation of the portrait genre, and “anyone” can pose as the subject of a portrait. Here, Tom Sandberg breaks with the conventional creation of a portrait, and thus challenges the genre. Hair carries with it a long symbolic tradition as an expression of something “female”, erotic and sensual. Billowing locks can be linked to an untamed nature, while neat braids suppress this wildness in a civilized manner. In this way, the portrait at UiA moves within a fundamental duality. We consider a traditional female attribute and turn it into something else just as alluring, but not necessarily linked to just the woman.

Tom Sandberg, Portrett (1999), Photography - silver gelatin on aluminium plate, KORO Location: Canteen

Photo: Mette-Line Pedersen

Mette Tronvoll (b. 1965) is a Norwegian photographer who graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1992. In The National Budget for 2016, she was appointed a government scholar. Tronvoll is known for the portraits of Queen Sonja from 2013, which were shown at the National Museum in 2014. Former examples of projects include portraits of women from Trondheim (1994), soldiers in Rena Camp (2006), portraits of Inuit and Mongolian nomads, the series Goto Fukue - a series showing women harvesting seaweed on a Japanese beach, and pictures from Svalbard.

What is a human being? Mette Tronvoll poses this fundamental question as a basis through her production of photographs over the past 25 years. In the work George, Müritz National Park, the model we see emerges with a powerful presence in the room, the man/ George in the forest looks directly at the viewer.

People are usually placed squarely in front of the camera and are given the time, space and opportunity to present and represent themselves in the photograph’s moment. According to Trond Borgen on Kunstkritikk.no (10.12.09), it is almost impossible to interpret these photographic portraits without at the same time seeing them through the texts of Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag; we only experience a pseudo-existence, for the photographs are also signs of absence, and death is inscribed in each image, like a memento mori. In Tronvoll’s work, this melancholy becomes just one of many references. The photo we see has a strong documentary character and is not edited/manipulated afterwards.

In the images, Tronvoll is concerned with capturing the encounter with the person portrayed in their natural context, a necessary premise for the artist in order for the pictures to appear credible and close to the viewer.

Photo: private

Mette Tronvoll

Mette Tronvoll George, Müritz National Park (2000) Photography, C-print on photo paper KORO Location: I-building, corridor at the entrance.

KORO decorations in Sigurd Køhn’s House/Building K In 2010, the University of Agder opened a new music studies building with room for offices, rehearsal rooms, ensemble halls and a music studio. One goal for the new building was to bring the various arts subjects at the university physically closer together, thus facilitating more interdisciplinary collaboration.

The artist Leiken Vik won the closed competition to create the main work for the new building. The work, At the same time, in a parallel universe, is composed of two parts: an installation and a painting. The first work hangs to the right of the main entrance. Glossy strips of steel are mounted at different heights and lengths all over the concrete wall and create an interesting interplay between the blank steel and the matte, brushed concrete, between the rough and the delicate. The steel stripes reflect the wall opposite, and also function as a kind of mirror where we see ourselves and the world split and divided.

The other part of Vik’s work hangs further inside the corridor.

The seven-metre-long and about two-metre-high painting covers an entire wall and is painted on plexiglass. The motif can resemble explosions of light in a diffuse landscape, but can also be reminiscent of a universe, or the beginning of a parallel universe. Together, the two parts reflect the extremes of the artistic creative process, with the cool steel on one side, and the intuitive, emotional and explosive on the other.

A side project by the artist Marianne Lund can also be found in the building. On each floor of the stairwell, four paintings hang on circular plates of aluminium, which together make up the work Remember me. A stairwell is not a room you linger, you pass the different floors in a spiral movement upwards or downwards. The meticulously time-consuming works in different sizes and shades of blue emphasise this feeling and help to give the floors different identities.

Leiken Vik Samtidig, i et parallelt univers, del 1 (2010) Mirror-polished steel KORO Location: Sigurd Køhn’s house/Building K

Leiken Vik Samtidig, i et parallelt univers del 2 (2010), Painting on polycarbonate, powder-coated aluminum KORO Location: Sigurd Køhn’s house/Building K

Marianne Lund (b. 1960) has a background as an architect and is a visual artist. Her project The Beauty of the consequence-lines and corrections is the starting point for the decorative art we see on Campus Kristiansand.

The beginning of the project started with drawings. The artist describes it as “geometry’s meeting with the body.”

“How to draw the perfect circle?” are questions that shed light on the project’s concept. In the drawings, a circular disc is used, and the artist physically moves around the circle. The expression is characterised by the emergence of something that is impossible to achieve, such as the perfect circle, but it provides new variations. The physical part is important to the artist. She has technically moved from drawing to oil on aluminium sheets.

The aspect of time is also important, and she is guiding her project further towards larger formats. We see a change in colour, shape and dimension. In a meticulous process, she paints lines and corrects a mistake or a beginning, line follows the line principle. Spots (Corrections) are marked as errors, i.e. the body’s saturation point and the physically and mentally necessary break. Or to put it another way: It is about making a choice in regard to rest and continuation. At the same time, the defects mean that long pigments hold the line from beginning to end, while the short pigments require the brush to be dipped during the process. When it comes to the process itself, it is the body that in a way obeys the artist’s pre-decided choices.

The artist decides everything in advance, both format and colour - what arises along the way is subject to the body’s physical possibilities and limitations. It is natural to draw lines to performance art and minimalism in a description of her project. Something other than what one thinks arises from the start - the body’s encounter with geometry or with the rules. The project can also be seen in the light of a “hands on” tendency in art, i.e. that the craft and material are examined by hand and show inherent power and possibilities.

Marianne Lund is interested in space and the optical effects and possibilities of materials, and it is natural that associations go in the direction of Op-art in relation to perception. Colour pigments provide new and unfamiliar optical effects - and “it is exciting to see how differently the colour pigments change”, says the artist.

Photo: private

Marianne Lund

Marianne Lund Remember Me (2010) Oil paint on aluminium sheets KORO Location: Sigurd Køhn’s house/Building K

Beat art at the University of Agder Beat art is characterised as expressive, vital, abstract and symbolic. Political statements were less expressed, despite the Beat artists’ anti-conformist stance, opposition to the United States’ rearming policy, and fear of the Cold War. The Beat Art Collection is characterised by the fact that it is Reidar Wennesland’s personal selection of Beat art and consists of a number of wellknown artists such as Jay DeFeo, but also completely unknowns. The core of the beat collection consists of artists Michael Bowen and Arthur Monroe. There are a total of 59 different artists, but about half of the works are not signed and thus the artist is unknown.

The University of Agder has the world’s largest collection of Beat art outside the United States. The works are a gift from Reidar Wennesland. From 1956 he had a medical practice in North Beach in San Francisco where he often charged for medical services in the form of art. Works from the Beat Art Collection are exhibited here in Vrimlehallen, the stairwell in the G-block, in the A-block, the B-block, and at the University Library at Campus Kristiansand.

A view of a Beatnik dive, The Gas House. Photo by Allan Grant/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

Sandra Norrbin Närmare (2004) Oil pastels on paper UiA’s Art Collection Location: Building G, second floor

Kjell Nupen (1955-2014) was one of Norway’s most prominent and popular visual artists.

For 40 years, he had a significant production of paintings, prints, sculptures, installations and glass art.

Nupen received his art education at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Norway (1972), and later in Düsseldorf, Germany. Through his education, he came into contact with a political art scene at an early age, which became visible in his ability to formulate contrasts with material contradictions. His political involvement in the 1970s was inspired by the German art scene and political radicalism. During this period, Nupen wanted to raise awareness among the audience. His work was often violencerelated, and this theme of death became an important part of Nupen’s production, as a response to the suffering of the world.

Another motif that recurred in the 1970s was a running animal; a metaphor for the unsettling and changing zeitgeist of the 1970s, inspired by the media reality of the time.

However, there is a change in his artistry in the 1980s. Nupen goes from a political focus to a more meditative side. The formats become larger and the colours more prominent with archaic symbols and text blocks. In addition to painting, Nupen made Otterdalsparken, also called “Nupenparken” by the locals down by the waterfront in Kristiansand (1991).

In the same area, a ceramic vase is also placed. Nupen’s vases are part of a Danish tradition that can be traced back to NeoRomanticism. The references in this period are often to Romanticism and to a mythical foundation. Earth tones and and elements from traditional Norwegian rosemaling refer to a new period in Nupen’s oeuvre from 1995. Old signs and symbols were combined to create something new. This also reflects characteristics of the art scene of the 1990s, where there is a total freedom and disposition of genres united in a crossover. By employing applied art together with painting, the artist simultaneously challenges the concept of handicrafts and the concept of visual arts. Such a montage offers

Photo: Jørn H. Moen, Dagbladet

Kjell Nupen

Kjell Nupen, Cascade (1989). Oil on canvas. The Art Collection at UiA. Donation from Storebrand. Location: Vrimlehallen

further associations with the Berlin Dadaists of the 1920s who pioneered montage techniques in the art world. The principle of the montage lies in the fact that the juxtaposition of two images gives rise to a third meaning, without this meaning being embedded in either of the two images. Reactions were divided on this new development of traditional Norwegian rosemaling in Nupen’s work, and therefore received mixed reviews. However, the paintings Untitled, which are on display at Campus Grimstad, are more in line with Nupen’s design language from the period in the early 90s, when he produced the previously mentioned ceramic vases and Nupenpark on the waterfront.

Photo: Thomas Tveter

Bertil Greging

Visual artist Bertil Greging (b. 1957) was born and raised in Oslo. The inspiration for his work comes from his inner self, and the need to express himself freely in the work process is an end in itself. He has worked with a number of different expressions; from strictly graphic drawings and paintings to colourful and expressive collage and paper works.

Oils, dry pastel, acrylic paint, graffiti spray, masking tape, pencil, brush and collage glue are used interchangeably to form composition, lines, surfaces and colours. Some drawings are complete, others are torn or cut up to create a new whole in another work.

In many of the works, you can see the head as a shape.

Nevertheless, Greging does not work from any conscious theme, but is largely influenced by Oslo, the city where he lives and works. For example, angles and lines in a façade, a piece of paper that hangs on a lamppost or exhaust fumes that form a shape on the asphalt can create a visual impression for the artist. This can later be expressed in a work, intuitively and spontaneously.

The process often starts with a small piece of paper or a line, and is built up layer by layer. The images are expressive, but the result is never random. The collages are created through a process where the different parts are moved around and temporarily attached with tape, before they are permanently glued to the background after careful evaluation. The rough draft, unlike in previous periods, has now been eliminated from the process. The distance between the idea and the finished work should be as short as possible.

Bertil Greging, Braincut drawing (2017), drawing/collage, UiA’s Art Collection, location: K building, first floor

Greging has had a number of solo and group exhibitions, and has done several decoration commissions. He has been purchased by both public and private institutions such as, for example, The House of Literature in Oslo.

Torunn Skjelland, Bambus og kamfer (2021) Painting directly on the wall, carved shapes in oak and mdf, oiled and painted UiA’s art collection Location: H-building, second floor Photo: Walter Wehus

Marius Martinussen Shattered (2017) Acrylic on canvas UiA’s art collection Location: A6, Rector’s Office

Photo: private

Regien Cox

For many, life is about experiencing different encounters with other people, as well as building relationships between the near and the distant. In light of relationships, memories arise that often catch up with us as we age, sometimes to a greater extent than others. Identity and values are not created in a vacuum, but through interaction, contact and preferably intercultural meetings. Spending time between the different moments and spaces that catch up to us is something Regien Cox uses in her art.

Cox (b. 1977) collects her personal memories in a kind of time capsule, either through saving physical things or through her inner memories. These are retrieved again and examined anew through a visual expression. The memories may be related to her childhood in the Netherlands, experiences from travels, personal meetings with people and so on. A memory from the past can be transformed again, suddenly, into something else. The memories are visualized through geometric shapes. The starting point is the material, while the process leading up to the finished result can vary. Here, there is no standard practice. It is the material that often directs, while the memories can transform the material’s starting point into something else; it is the unconscious that controls the process.

Regien Cox, Dagbokhus (2014), collage, textile and wood, UiA Art Collection, Location: G-building, first floor

Trond Nicholas Perry To collager (2017) Paper Collage UiA’s art collection Location: Building G, first floor

Photo: private

Kirsti van Hoegee

Kirsti van Hoegee (b. 1975) lives and works in Bergen. Kirsti van Hoegee has a bachelor’s degree in photography and a master’s degree in fine art from the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, and works in a range of expressions, often with photography as a starting point.

In her latest art projects, she has investigated aspects and drawn parallels between the behaviour of insects and the increasingly artificially illuminated world. In the art project that we see in the H-building, she now visually examines our relationship with the universe, and how this has changed in line with the progress of photography and the advent of light. The artist problematizes the questions of what it means for us humans when we lose access to the starry sky?

Kirsti van Hoegee, Mellom steiner (2017), Photography, UiA’s Art Collection Location: Building H, second floor meeting room

Photo: private

Anna Marie S. Gudmundsdottir

Anna Marie Sigmond Gudmundsdottir (b. 1974, Reykjavik) has her education from the Art Academy in Bergen (1994-2000). She has had solo exhibitions and participated in a number of group exhibitions at home and abroad. Her latest solo exhibition was in Dropsfabrikken in Trondheim in May-June 2019. The artist has made several public art projects and has been purchased by public collections such as The City of Oslo Art Collection, DNB and for UiA’s art collection/new top floor in G3.

Anna Marie Sigmond Gudmundsdottir works with installation, photography, painting and drawing, and her expression is reminiscent of traces and lines in landscapes. She describes her work with drawing and painting as being based on her experience of landscape and how it transforms her inner processes – both urban and rural landscapes. The starting point is memories and experiences, where she explores the transitions where a view or a place becomes insight and part of an abstract memory. The paintings and drawings build the bridge between the real world and the conceptual, where memories from different landscapes change character and volume after the physical experience has taken place.

The material experience is marginal, while what it leaves behind is in constant movement and change.

The artist is interested in drawing as an instrument for inner mental processes based on memories and experiences, where what you do not see in a picture can become more important than what you see.

Anna Marie Sigmond Gudmundsdottir, LANZAROTE SA (2019), Painting, UiA’s Art Collection Location: Building G, 3rd floor

Vigdis Fjellheim (b. 1975) has wanted to create murals that can be a visual enhancement in the premises, but which are also adapted to a place where knowledge, learning and immersion are the main focus.

The motifs revolve around issues surrounding the greatest challenge of our time, regardless of subject and discipline.

Earth’s ecosystems have changed faster over the past one hundred years than ever before in human history. Knowledge that provides an understanding of the connections and respect for all the components of the world in its entirety is more important now than ever.

The large aspen forest in Fishlake National Park in Utah, USA is called “The Trembling Giant”. Pando tree means “I spread out” and the entire forest is considered as one living organism, where each tree has identical genetic material but comes from the same ancient root system. It was created from one seed 80,000 years ago and is considered to be the world’s heaviest and oldest living organism.

In the sketches, the artist has used elements that are intertwined into something complete. The new building is characterised by a long continuous row of 14 oblong floor-to-ceiling windows.

These dimensions are repeated as components, or as building blocks, in the murals. The images demonstrate an extensive use of stencils, silhouettes and negative/positive forms adapted to the theme. It is something to dive into, be absorbed by and interact with.

Photo: private

Vigdis Fjellheim

Vigdis Fjellheim, Uten tittel (2019), Murals , UiA’s art collection Location: Building F, second floor

Hilde Honerud Uten tittel (2021) - from the series “It is a light which objectifies everything and confirms nothing” Photography UiA’s art collection Location: I-building, second floor

Photo: Walter Wehus

Photo: private

Jan Trygve Fløysvik

Fløysvik’s works are made in an analytical and planned work process where they reflect technology, biology and structural conditions. He has a constructivist approach to the complex space that has been built around us. A micro-macro cosmos, perhaps on the verge of collapse.

Fløysvik (b. 1961) manages to create an original expression that is both associative and ambiguous. His paintings can be interpreted both on a micro and macro level, on the one hand as an image of space or on the other as the body’s cells or microbes. Some of the round images can also be interpreted as either a network of nerve fibres or as a constellation. Another characteristic feature of the later motifs are also round shapes tied together with lines reminiscent of drive belts or machine parts. This in turn gives associations to the kinetic art of early modernism, where the mechanical and moving parts often constituted a starting point. The rotating element recurred, for example, in Marcel Duchamp’s early experimental film Anémic Cinéma (1925/26) and his constructivist Rotorelief (disques optiques, 1935). In Fløysvik’s work, however, it is not the movement that is central, but the illusion of movement.

The artist is concerned with the tension between things and illusion, which among other things means that the painting’s object factor is emphasised. A consequence of this is that the bounds of the images sometimes goes beyond the traditional rectangle format. The paintings are often executed on circular and elliptical MDF boards. The pictures are made up of both geometric and organic shapes, various forms of the circle and the ellipse. From a technical point of view, the various pictorial elements appear as clearly defined surfaces, without expressive strokes or large variations in the texture of the painting.

At the same time, an illusion of movement is created, because the shapes are arranged in rhythmic patterns. The paintings can be experienced as cinematic.

You get the illusion of cinematic sequences that are suddenly stopped, as if spontaneously hitting the pause button on the DVD player. These sequences give associations to astronomical and evolutionary themes.

Jan Trygve Fløysvik, Sun Rays (2017), Oil paint on veneer board, UiA’s art collection Location: Jon Lilletunstova

When looking at the paintings, one can get the impression that a galactic system is taking on new forms. The process in the studio conveys an echo of the macro cosmos, translated and distilled into formal abstractions.

The unconventional formats and sections, coupled with the precise placement of the pictorial elements, give the images very interesting, sometimes ambiguous spatial effects. Large and small wheels move, axes are stretched, surfaces shift and manipulate the picture plane. The literary and metaphysical expression is strikingly balanced. Fløysvik’s paintings reveal a unique vision.

They can, without having any direct parallels, give associations to many different eras and expressions.

Exhibition BARE Studenthus, Kristiansand May 6th - September 30th 2024

BEAT - The University of Agder’s art collection has historically engaged in the loan of artworks to prominent art institutions, curating exhibitions that resonate with both historical and contemporary narratives.

The exhibition “Take a Walk on the Wild Side: Hipsters, Beatniks and Rebellions from the 1950s and 60s,” meticulously curated by MetteLine Pedersen, was staged at the student venue BARE within the KRAFTVERK building (formerly known as SKMU) across its Ground, first and second floor, lasting from May to September 2024. The title, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” serves as a potent metaphor for the Beat Generation, capturing its rebellious spirit and artistic innovation—a theme that holds both art historical significance and contemporary relevance, especially concerning the discourse on artistic freedom within Norway.

True to Reidar Wennesland’s vision of making art accessible within educational institutions, displaying selected artworks from the Beat collection during the UiA Art Festival in May 2024, FUNDAMENT festival in September, housed within the innovative environment of the new student house BARE, was particularly relevant.

The presentation of art within stairwell spaces represented an invigorating and somewhat avant-garde curatorial choice, deftly reflecting the unrestrained ethos of Beat art. The exhibition garnered considerable acclaim, prompting an extension of its display period through September.

A heartfelt appreciation is extended to our collaborators at KRAFTVERK , UiA Fakultet for Kunstfag and BARE, as well as the technical teams, for their indispensable contributions, along with the creators behind the dissemination materials, particularly the flyer, BRKLYN.

Streetartt UiA a

Since 2021, UiA’s art collection has purchased graphic prints from profiled Norwegian street art artists. Inside the K building, there have been temporary projects/murals by names such as Ener Konings, Vlek and Sedin Zunic.

K-building - Street artist: Sedin Zunic The artist explains what inspired him to create the image: “The expression I want to portray is as shown in the picture. It conveys that everyone has music inside them, inside their heart. I aim to inspire students and visitors to be true to themselves.”

Title: You Should Never Play To The Gallery K-building- Street-artist: Ener Konings Ener Konings is a Norwegian-born artist in the genre of urban contemporary art. He was born in Bergen in 1989 and grew up in a period characterised by the development of street art in the cityscape. In the work you can see in K-building, Ener Konings has taken posters that once hung around the campus and used them in a collage as a background for the image, having plastered and torn the picture itself so that the layers in the background gradually appear. The technique is inspired by the life cycle of outdoor street art.

Watch video from the process here:

These murals are all temporary works of art.

Sedin Zunic You Should Never Play To The Gallery (2022) Mural UiA’s art collection Location: Building K, ground floor

Ener Konings Bridgette (2021) Wall Mural UiA’s art collection Location: Building K, ground floor

Ener Konings Bridgette (2021) (detail) Mural UiA’s art collection Location: Building K, ground floor

Photo: Saara Maria Ojanen

VLEK Uten tittel (2023) Mural UiA’s art collection Location: Building K, ground floor

© University of Agder/2025 More information about UiA’s art collection here: uia.no/om-uia/organisasjonen/kunstsamlinga Design: BRKLYN Photo: Hugo Skarsten Larsen / BRKLYN