2024 was perhaps more focused than previous years. I have been working with two long series, the Social Engineering series of twelve works and this fall and winter with works in the Spread compilation, which I hope to exhibit this year. However, I have also made several larger works, such as the three Sabotage paintings, the monumental Omega piece, and some stand-alone works. I made three solo exhibitions this year, fewer than in recent years, but I appreciate spending more time working towards each of them. I did one residency and was so lucky to get a substantial grant from BKV, the Norwegian fund that collects a percentage of all national art sales.
I have been engaged in the ongoing genocide taking place in Palestine the whole year, protesting and participating in actions to get the Norwegian government to disinvest in Israeli companies and condemn the war. Not a lot of progress, sadly, but at least our government has ratified Palestine as a sovereign state. My hope for this year is peace and freedom for the Palestinians, though, at the moment, it looks bleak. This activity has, to some extent, influenced my work.
In the fall, I made a small change to the design of my panels. The inside of the edge is levelled out, so the visible frame seems slimmer. It's a bit more work, but I think the result is worth it. I also finally ran out of my stock of white filler, so I had to find a new brand since my old one was discontinued. After searching all the stores in Oslo, I found a perfect type at the Swedish low-price store Biltema.
The year ended with some obstacles. My gallery, Buer Gallery in Oslo, had to move out of the venue and is currently in transit. Luckily, I managed to do my second show there before this. Secondly, as some of you may have noticed, I had to change the font on my website and all printed materials due to legal issues. I´m still adjusting the design of posters and books, but hopefully, they will all be available on my site later this year. I also lost my day job, which allows me to spend more time in the studio in the coming months, but eventually, I will have to find another one.
The year's first exhibition was in April at Klippan Konsthall in southern Sweden. It was a surprisingly beautiful and spacious venue for such a small town, and I´m very happy with how it turned out. I showed the whole Social Engineering series, two larger works, and some other standard-sized ones. The exhibition was titled Legacy, and you can read more about it here.
I entered a residency at Fossekleiva Kunstsenter in May, about 60 km from Oslo. It is quaint in an old textile industry building with housing, studios, a gallery, and a cafe. The main focus of the culture centre is puppet theatre, so they also have a large stage. I stayed a month in an apartment on a farm and had a studio at my disposal at the centre. Read more about this adventure here.
The residency led to an exhibition that opened in June and lasted all summer. I titled it Sabotage after the two works I produced during the residency. I also exhibited my large Bilderberg piece as a backdrop for their stage area. There was a grand opening for me and the other artist, Daina Deksne-Gundersen, who also had worked at the centre for a month. There was also a group exhibition with three esteemed Latvian textile artists: Prane/Krumina/Krutovs. Check out more here.
My third and last exhibition for the year was my second solo show at Buer Gallery in Oslo. It opened the season in August and was titled Language Wraps Itself Around The Hard Kernel Of Reality Like A Thin Coat Of Paint after one of the exhibited works. It comprised a selection of works from the last two and a half years since my first exhibition with the gallery and introduced a few sculptural installation pieces. I also worked for months during the spring with the monumental work #518 Omega, specially designed for one of the walls in the gallery. Read more about the exhibition and the opening here.
Here is a compilation of my activities as an artist this year.
Here are the works produced in 2024 in the order they were published on my site, with the newest first. There were 41 works, 38 paintings, and three objects or installations. It was quite a productive year, considering eight of them are multipanelled.
Sales were low, though—lower than they have been in many years. Only two sold works. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that sales will pick up in 2025.
That´s all, folks!
Comments