Ung.Lovende (Young.Promising) presents recently graduated artists, their artistic practices and thematic investigations. Fourteen graduates from the art academies of Bergen, Oslo and Tromsø, have been invited to exhibit their work. Ung.Lovende gives newcomers to the world of art topicality and opportunities to flourish and affords the public unique insights into current events on the young art scene.
Artists
Amber Ablett (GB), Tiago Bom (PT), Serina Erfjord (NO), Karin Erixon (SE), Helene Førde (NO), Kay Arne Kirkebø (NO), Mimmi Mattila (FI), Hidemi Nishida (JP), Georgia Rodger (GB), Georg Rohlfing (DE), Erna Elinbjörg Skuladottir (IS), Daniel Slåttnes (NO), Tarald Wassvik (NO) , Lasse Årikstad (NO)
Seduce us to see
The hunt for the latest and newest drives us. Magic lies in discovering the future. This is as true for art as for fashion, design and technology. In England, the organization New Contemporaries has sought out young artists and allowed them to establish valuable contacts with the art field through annual exhibitions. Punkt Ø – Gallery F 15 has for a number of years systematically trained its searchlight on young art. In 1993, the gallery established a project room for the young and innovative, and though this arena was closed in 2006, our commitment has remained unchanged.
Ung.Lovende does not bring together a group of young students engaged in «classical» rebellion against the hegemonic truths of art or society. The exhibition includes no crassly provocative or innately controversial works similar to Anna Odell’s shocking film, shown in 2009[1] at Konstfack in Stockholm and at Gallery F 15 in the same year, which features the artist’s staged suicide attempt.
The widespread belief that new generations of artists are associated with radical approaches to art, skews our expectations to an exhibit such as Ung.Lovende. In a review of the Academy’s examination exhibition in Oslo, the art magazine Billedkunst recently posed the question, «What happened to the rage and bluster of the last ten-fifteen years? To the dark visions and violent expressivity?».[2] The dominant tendency among the young artists exhibited seems instead to be a turn toward the poetic and introspective, as the reviewer in Billedkunst also points out.
Ung.Lovende might be experienced as «Nordic»: blond and romantic. In formal terms, several of the works share a spartan elegance and subdued expressiveness. Many of the artists reflect a tendency that also came to the fore at last year’s main exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which discovered and paid tribute to the mystic and occult. In addition, we note an interest in the idea of the artist as a seeker of inspiration and works that focus on representations of women. Several of the exhibited works investigate space and architecture, in spatially specific art that both attacks and disturbs or, on the contrary, subtly and quietly directs our attention to hidden aspects of spaces and buildings, to the spirit of the place. Personal stories are also represented, as well as performative sculptural and multidimensional installations.
An institution of art is characterized by a blend of professional expertise, experience, intuition and taste. We who have selected artists and objects of art, have brought in artists who we sense have established a personal expressive form. Getting to that point is a long process, but as a reviewer of the Academy’s examination exhibition in Bergen writes, «… to judge from this year’s exhibit, it appears that the school has brought many of its students a good distance along the way.»[3]
Our invitations of artists to Ung-Lovende have been extended with earnestness and humility. We have looked for «new gold» The selection of works and artists was made by Anja Bjørshol, Maria C. Havstam and Dag Sveinar at Punkt Ø. The exhibition was assembled under the curatorship of Anja Bjørshol and Maria C. Havstam.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the artists, the art academies and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB
Maria C. Havstam
On behalf of the project group
[1] Anna Carolina Odell. Okänd, kvinna 2009 – 349701. Exam Work, Konstfack in Stockholm, 2009.
[2] Kjetil Røed, in Billedkunst, No. 4, 2014.
[3] Sigrun Åsebø, in Billedkunst, No. 3, 2014.
Amber Ablett
http://www.amberablett.com/Amber-Ablett
Tiago Bom
Serina Erfjord
Karin Erixon
Helene Førde
Kay Arne Kirkebø
Mimmi Mattila
Hidemi Nishida
Georgia Rodger
http://www.georgiarodger.co.uk/
Georg Rohlfing
http://georgrohlfing.blogspot.no/
Erna Elinbjörg Skuladottir
http://spodefactoryart.blogspot.no/2013/03/site-specific-work-in-progress-in.html
