It was an exciting year, with a lot of exhibitions and traveling. The main theme was starting to work with participatory art projects, and executing two of them within in the Res Ipsa tour, which included Det Gule Huset, Stange Kunstforening, Modum Kunstforening and Sunnfjord Kunstlag. I´m proud of finishing all the 51 works in the Equal In The End series produced durin g the SIT DOWN For Equality event in these exhibitions. I also did six TABLES event. Highlight of the year was finally being selected to Høstutstillingen and selling my big work there.
The first exhibition in 2019 was at Det Gule Huset i Asker that was called Vow after the title work. Among other works I showed the eight works in the PLEDGES series that was produced during Winter Solstice 2018: Poems to Orpheus at Teknisk Museum in Oslo.
Det Gule Huset
In February I had two works on display in the back room of LNM in Oslo, and I was Artist of the month on their website, which made me proud.
LNM
In March my friend Hanan Benammar arranged Karnevalet, a big art event together with some other people, and I participated in the parade and also was in charge of graphic design including producing their website. It was a very cool happening with so many interesting contributions.
Poster for Karnevalet
At the end of April I participated in Oslo Open, and I tried out the SIT DOWN For Equality and TABLES events that I used on many exhibition during the year.
Oslo Open, my studio
In May I got the exciting news that I was accepted to participate in "Tegning & Tekst", a collaboration between Tegnerforbundet and Nordic Artists' Centre Dale. That includes a three months stay at the art centre and an exhibition at Tegneforbundet at the end of May in 2020 together with four other artists. Very much looking forward to this!
In June I opened my second exhibition in 2019 at Stange Kunstforening together with Verena Kuppel, who invited me to lunch at her and her husbands place outside Stange. He is a sculptor and teaches in Germany. His student were staying at their place working in stone. They all came for the opening which was fun. Here I did both my events and showed the Equal In The End works that I did at Oslo Open. I decided to call this years exhibitions with new works for Res Ipsa, because I only showed works in this compilation. That is, works that are made directly in the wet filler.
Stange Kunstforening
At the end of June I travelled to Osterøy outside Bergen to make an exhibition in Hosanger at Galleri Mjøsvågen, runned by Osterøy Kunstlag. It was the season opening with three other artists - Birgit Eide, Marta Nerhus and Els Geelen. I had one room at the bottom floor of the old and pittoresque building. It was a bit smaller then I calculated so I only did the SIT DOWN project. I also showed a few of the PLEDGES paintings. I managed to time the deinstalling and installing of the shows at Stange and Osterøy so I could save some money on car rental. Hosanger is a super small community right by the see. I rented a room in a house on the other side of the island. Though the weather was bad it was a nice trip. On the way back I stopped at Eidfjord and the majestic Vøringsfossen which I showed to my friend Sapideh when she joined me to pick up the works later in the summer. I was reimbursed for the return transport.
Galleri Mjøsvågen
In July I opened a summer exhibition at Nordberg Fort on Lista at the very south of Norway. Nordberg Fort is a part of Vestagder Museum and the exhibition was curated by Alfred Vaagsvold at Galleri Lista Fyr. Since this show was open paralell with the one in Osterøy I showed one new work and some other works from the previous year, that was not part of the Res Ipsa compilation. I simply called the exhibition New Works. I made it into a small holiday and brought my kids for the installing. We rented a couple of rooms at the hostel in the old airfield that was build by the nazis during the ockupation along with Nordberg Fort. We also had time for some sightseeing on the island though the temperature didnt allowed swimming. Which were a pity because there are some awesome beaches on Lista. I had a nice time at Lista and though there were no funding for fees or remuneration, Alfred personally transported my works all the way back to Oslo.
Nordberg Fort
At the beginning of September Høstutstillingen in Oslo opened and this year I finally was part of it! A few days before the opening I got the great news that Ocean Rev, a invironmental institute and research vessel, had purchased my piece #113 Always Already. So it was a very good start. My works hade a good spot in the exhibition and got some attention in the reviews as well, so I was very happy with my participation. At the opening I partied and danced all night long!
Kunstnerenes Hus
The next stop for the Res Ipsa tour was Modum Kunstforening in September. The gallery was upstairs in an old building in Vikersund and quite beautiful with wooden floor, big windows and high ceiling. By now I had finished the Equal In The End works from Stange and Osterøy so I had over 30 works. I decided to make a straight grid. Both my participatory project went well and I got decent documentation from this show due to the fresh spotlights. Modum Kunstforening also purchased one of the Pledges works which I really appriciated.
Modum Kunstforening
At the end of September I opened yet an exhibition which meant my works were displayed at four venues simultanously - Nordberg Fort, Modum Kunstforening, Kunstnerenes Hus, and now Halden Kunstforening. Since I couldn´t use the Res Ipsa works I decided to title the exhibition White And Grey instead of just New Works as previously. But I did the TABLES event. At this exhibition I sold two small End Of Conversation works and #157 Precari. They also imbursed me for the return transport and had sparkling wine for the opening!
Halden Kunstforening
This year I participated for the first time in an art fair. It was Singulart.com, a website that sell my work who invited me to their booth at Afforfable Art fair in Stockholm. They arranged for the transport of my works, but I nevertheless travelled to Stockholm to check out the fair, another gallery space and visit some friends. The fair was very commercial which was a bit disturbing, but at least they sold two of my works!
Affordable Art Fair
The last instalment of the Res Ipsa exhibition was at Sunnfjord Kunstlag in Førde. They let me use the big hall, Festsalen, in Førde house of culture. It was huge! A worthy ending to the tour. I had a nice trip there over Hemsedal and also took a peek at Bøyabreen, a big glacier close to Jotunheimen. Gunnstein Brakestad, the head of Sunnfjord Kunstlag helped me a lot with unloading and installing and let me stay at his house for several days. We had a very pleasant dinner the day before the opening. He had arranged for Roar Gulbrandsen to hold a speech at the opening that was precise and inspiring. Roar is an artist and a poet and was one of the founders of the art association. When I returned for the home transportation he invited me and Gunnstein for a dinner and gave me samples of his poetry books. At the opening Gunnstein also made an interview with me in front of the audience with insightful and knowledgeable questions. There were a bit more than usual hesitation from the visitors to participate in the SIT DOWN event, but eventually I got my prints. There were also a TABLES event, so in all I made 5 "free" Turned Table works from openings during the year.
I found Sunnfjord Kunstlag very well managed and it was a delight to exhibit there. They paid for the return transportation and arranged for me to hold a paid lecture to an artclass in the gallery.
Festsalen, Førde Kulturhus
In December I was quick enough to be part of Åpen Kunsthall at Oslo Kunsthall, an uncurated art event, salon style. It was open just for a few days but even so, a fun experience.
Oslo Kunsthall
The last thing I did in 2019 was as usual to participate in my friend Hanan Benammars annual art event, this year titled Winter Solstice 2019 WE DANCE ALONE and located at Kroloftet in Frysja, Oslo. I set up an different kind of TABLES event. I combined it with my Paper Cups series and had the visitors to make imprints with paper cups on condition that they made voluntary donations. I had them write the recipients on the outside of the frame. The idea was to mill out the text later but that turned out to be difficult. So instead I sanded off the text and presented it on the product site of the finished work. It is titled #236 Turned Table - Paper Cups and will probably be exhibited along with some other new Paper Cups works at Galleri Rostrum in Malmö in 2020.
Kroloftet, Oslo
I finished 86 individual works in 2019, including 51 Equal In The End works (here only shown as an incomplete group). In chronological order, the latest first.
I sold these works in 2019:
The posters of 2019: