Press Release - Marit Geraldine Bostad. painting exhibition "Hope Island"

PRESS RELEASE

We are pleased to welcome you to a meeting with the artist Marit Geraldine Bostad during the exhibition's installation, Wednesday 27. January from 11.00 Press photos Press photo1 Press photo2 Press photo3 Press photo4

Hope Island XII, acrylic on canvas, 155 x 125 cm Hope Island VI, acrylic on canvas, 105 x 85 cm Portrait 1 Portrait 2

Marit Geraldine Bostad, solo exhibition « Hope Island », painting January 30 - February 21 From Saturday, January 30, Marit Geraldine Bostad’s newest exhibition Hope Island will be exhibiting at Gulden Kunstverk.

Prophecy and hope at home and abroad Many paths and choices lead to a successful career as a visual artist and Marit Geraldine Bostad of Horten has chosen the steps on her path with great success. In 2009, she left the security of her job as an art director in order to focus on her self-development, cultivating her dream of becoming an artist. It was a rare moment of truth and clarity in which the artist finally acquiesced to her inner voice. Ever since Marit Geraldine graduated and entered the work force as an art director, she felt a strong attraction to painting with the medium acting as a ventilator in the controlled, commercial work she did for nearly a decade in Oslo's advertising industry. Without a traditional art education and tough competition at home in Norway, she eventually looked to enter the market abroad. In 2015, she came through the eye of the needle at "The Other Art Fair" in London for the first time and was accepted to the fair again in 2017. During her second appearance at the fair, Saatchi Arts' chief curator Rebecca Wilson chose Marit as one of "four must-see artists" selected from a group of 130 emerging artists participating in the fair in London. The artist’s unique perspective and approach to abstract painting was recognized and validated as one gallery and art magazine after another eagerly sought to collaborate with Vestfold artist Marit Geraldine Bostad.

The past six years have brought persistent interest from collectors and galleries internationally.

Geraldine has stayed busy showing in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels and even Dubai.

This has included a multitude of solo and group exhibitions, art fairs and collaboration with curators and interior designers. In 2018, she was invited to a 6-week artist residency at MANA Contemporary in New York with art collector Eileen Kaminsky (ESKFF). Today the artist is represented by a variety of fine art galleries around the world including the renowned gallery Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, which took Geraldine under their wing in 2017. The artist is currently participating in her fourth exhibition with the gallery. As Marit Geraldine makes her debut at Gulden Kunstverk, she is simultaneously showing in three exhibitions, two in London and one in New York. In the summer of 2020 she was selected as one of 30 shortlisted artists chosen from more than 2,000 international applicants to the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize in London. Marit was also recently featured in the Sotheby's Institute of Art magazine among a select group of international emerging artists. This month she signed with Auc Art in London – an auction house which

fronts tomorrow's newcomers in emerging international art. The artist's work can be found in several private and corporate collections in Norway and internationally.

When the world came to a halt in March 2020, Marit had to stop two large shipments with paintings on their way to other countries and her usually busy international exhibition schedule unfortunately slowed. Not long afterwards she opened a dialogue and the plans for her first solo exhibition in the South of Norway with Gulden Kunstverk.

Hope does not disappoint - because it has not promised anything.

Isolation, lockdown, cancellations, postponements and the ever-present threat of the pandemic led to the idea of a new exhibition with hope at its center. Marit Geraldine Bostad renewed her connection with the outside world in a freer approach to abstraction and the result was a series of paintings that form the core of the exhibition Hope Island. Hope is necessary for the world to move forward while everyone adapts, learning a new way of being and navigating through the new realities of life after the pandemic.

Marit’s work is created spontaneously, at the intersection of the conscious and the subconscious. She describes her practice as a form of therapy; a way to disconnect from an externally controlled world, and be present in the moment. A conversation, a person, a mood, a feeling - all these experiences are stored. It requires a separate presence to translate the information onto a canvas and it requires a distinct presence to let go of the conscious world.

The exhibition consists of 40 -50 new paintings, and the medium is acrylic on canvas and acrylic on paper. The artist will be present on the opening day. Please take a look through the exhibition CATALOG which features selected works from the collection and comprehensive information about the artist’s exceptional career.

Feel free to call Marit Geraldine on mobile +47 977 32 480 Is it desirable to preview at other times?

Call the undersigned on +47 934 02 977 Otherwise, follow our website www.guldenkunstverk.no With best regards Walter N. Welo, Tel. 32 23 62 80 mobile 934 02 977 Gulden Kunstverk is open Wednesday to Sunday from 12 - 17 Location: well signposted by E134 14 km from Drammen GPS to Gulden Kunstverk - Steinberg - Guldenveien 11 NOTE! Steinberg station is modernized and in full operation! Take the Kongsberg train from Oslo S 9 minutes over EVERY hour.