Wonderland

THERESE
NORTVEDT

www.gallerisoon.no Meierigrden Storgata 17 1555 Son

Photography: ystein Thorvaldsen and Alf Georg Dannevig Layout: Anette Helle Cover: WaterLily (detail) Printed by Merkur-Trykk, 2013 Special Thanks to Swissfilmlondon /Hjrdis Dreschel and Hanspeter Bertschy Galleri Soon and Therese Nortvedt www.theresenortvedt.com

Wonderland
THERESE NORTVEDT

8th June - 7th July 2013

Meierigrden, Storgata 17 1555 Son Phone: 64 95 37 77 / 95 08 53 79 www.gallerisoon.no Opening hours: Monday - Friday: 10:00 - 17:00 Saturday: 10:00 - 16:00 Sunday: 12:00 - 16:00 Extended opening hours in July

ffects of the Subconscious

A central characteristic of Therese Nortvedts pictorial language is the mythical dimension of her motifs. She presents us with a personal mythology occupied by women, children, animals and dolls, often rendered in feminine pastel. Together the figures create stories indicating deeper symbolic meanings, never fully accessible. Separated as they are from the trivial and tangible, these pictorial stories show paranormal traits. We are transported to the dim universe of Sleep. To inner landscapes inhabited by creatures of the imagination. Ghosts and nightmarish demons, softly shape-shifting between animal and human form. The creatures resemble hieroglyphs mysterious signs we decipher to comprehend, like after a dream, that is hard to grasp, like the puzzling fog here surrounding us. An illustration of bewildering unclarity, fog represents the fluid interim between Reality and the Unreal. It therefore also signifies Ambivalence. Due to its constant transformations, fog can furthermore represent the endlessly changing images of the Mind. Besides, fog or uncanny white mist communicates a sense of horror. Mist is symbolically related to both death and the demonic. Side by side with this angstridden symbolism, we here also find associations to sorrow. White mist can be read as white sadness caused by losing what cannot be identified. Being an emotion hard to describe, it is experienced often as a vacuum. The sensation of emptiness is accentuated by the many empty eyes confronting us in these paintings. As windows to the soul, eyes that seem empty and blind are additionally legible as blinded sanity. We can also connect the loss of sight to the Third Eye to clairvoyance and inner vision. Empty eyes thus point towards the transformation of one way of seeing to another, or to different levels of consciousness. In contrast to our physical sight, our inner Night Vision reaches deeper and further in fact, all the way to the wisdom of the Unconscious. That dreams have their own logic, is demonstrated in the famous fable about Alice in Wonderland an iconic masterpiece within dream literature. In her paintings Nortvedt enters into a dialogue with this literary and filmatic work. But it is a dialogue tinged with Gothic. Deathly pale, her young girls look alarmingly vulnerable compared to the rosy cheeked Alice. Appearing like spirits before us, they are accompanied by nocturnal owls, predatory creatures with haunting cries. Birds associated with death and ill omen. With large eyes evolved for perception in darkness, and wings feathered to be silent in flight, they wait for their prey. In one instance an owl hovers over a hauntingly pallid girl who seems suspended in air. Near the bird, a small aircraft perhaps a rescue helicopter? materializes from behind a cloud. Too late, or just in time. Nina Denney Ness Art Historian

nderbevissthetens tilveiebringelser
Et av de sentrale kjennetegnene ved Therese Nortvedts billedsprk er motivenes mytiske vinkling. Vi mter her en personlig mytologi befolket av kvinner, barn, dyr og rekvisitter, gjerne gjengitt i pastell. Sammen danner skikkelsene fortellinger som antyder dypere symbolske betydninger som aldri helt lar seg fange. Atskilt fra det trivielle og hndgripelige viser disse billedhistoriene overnaturlige trekk. Vi fraktes inn i svnens dunkle univers til et indre landskap bebodd av fantasifostre, spkelser og marerittaktige demoner med glidende overganger mellom mennesker og dyr. Nortvedts skikkelser er som hieroglyfer. Gtefulle tegn man desifrerer for forst, som etter en drm. tyde drmmer er imidlertid ikke sjeldent innviklet. De kan vre dunkle og ikke lette forst. Er det dette som antydes i den gtefulle disen man ofte ser i hennes arbeider? Som bilde p uklare tilstander av forvirring, representerer tken stadiet mellom det virkelige og det uvirkelige derved ogs det ambivalente. I kraft av dens stadige transformasjoner peker tken dessuten mot sinnets endelst skiftende bilder. Den underlig hvite disen kommuniserer for vrig uhygge, og er symbolsk forbundet med bde dd og det demoniske. Denne angstfylte symbolikk opptrer side om side med assosiasjoner til vemod. Hvit tke kan vre bilde p hvit sorg en sorg der man har mistet noe man ikke vet hva er. Fordi denne flelsen mangler ord oppleves den som et tomrom. Selve fornemmelsen av tomhet forsterkes av de tomme blikkene som ofte konfronterer oss i Nortvedts billedverden. Som vinduer inn til sjelen er tomme, er blinde yne ogs avleselige som forstandens forblindelse. Samtidig kan synstap assosieres med det tredje yet, alts med klarsynthet og det indre syn. Slik peker de tomme blikk mot forvandlingen av en mte se p til en annen eller fra en bevissthetstilstand til en ny. I motsetning til vrt ytre syn, skuer vrt indre nattsyn langt dypere og inn i ubevissthetens visdom. Drmmer som har sin egen logikk demonstreres i den kjente fabelen om Alice i eventyrland. Et ikonisk mesterverk innen drmmelitteraturen. Nortvedt gr inn i en dialog med dette litterre og filmatiserte verk. En dialog med en anelse av det gotiske. Ddelige bleke, ser disse unge jentene alarmerende srbare ut, sammenlignet med Alice med sine rosenrde kinn. Som nder fremtrer de foran oss ledsaget av nattlige ugler, predatorer med uforglemmelige skrik. Fugler som assosieres med dd og sykelig forvarsel. Med store yne utviklet til se i mrket og fjrkledde vinger for en lydls flukt, venter de p sitt bytte. I maleriet Wonderland svever en ugle, over en hjemskt blek jente, tilsynelatende hengende i luften. Ikke langt fra fuglen, bak skyene, kommer det et lite redningshelikopter til syne. Litt for sent eller akkurat i tide? Nina Denney Ness Magister i Kunsthistorie

Wonderland

Oil on canvas, 183 x 153 cm

WaterLily

Oil on canvas, 145 x 115 cm

The Lake

Oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm

Swallow

Oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm

Immortal

Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm

Dressage (detail)

Oil on canvas 105 x 72 cm

Venison

Oil on Canvas, 41 x 30 cm

The Girl with Red Shoes (after Magritte) Oil on canvas, 145 x 112 cm

The Ancestors

Oil on canvas, 120 x 70 cm

Under the Spell

Oil on canvas, 145 x 115 cm

Bluebells Oil on canvas, 145 x 115 cm

Ivy

Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm

The Dancer Oil on canvas, 155 x 90 cm

The Coronation

Oil, stones and glitter on canvas, 120 x 75 cm

THERESE NORTVEDT
Born in Oslo. Lives and works in London and Norway.

EDUCATION
1974-76 Academy of Fine Arts, Trondheim, Norway 1977-78 Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, London 1978-79 English National Opera Theatre Design School, London 1976-77 and 79/81 National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, Norway 1988 Galleri Wang, Oslo, Norway 1986 Galleri F 15, Moss, Norway 1985 Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway B- Side Gallery, NYC, New York Lillehammer kunstforening, Norway 1984 The American Scandinavian Foundation, NYC, New York Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Hvikodden, Norway 1983 ABC NO RIO, NYC, New York 1982 Galleri 71, Troms, Norway 1981 Galleri Norske Grafikere, Oslo, Norway Ibsenhuset, Skien, Norway 1980 Galleri Cassandra, Drbak, Norway

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (a selection )

2013 Wonderland, Galleri Soon, Son, Norway 2012 The Conspiracy, Galleri Grand, Arendal, Norway 2011 The Conspiracy, Villa Goecke, Krefeld, Germany 2010 When I close my Eyes. Aalesund Kunstforening, Norway 2009 Female Painting and Drawing, Galerie Christian Roellin, St. Gallen, Switzerland 2007 Galleri Trafo, Norway Soli Brug, Norway Kunstgalleriet, Stavanger, Norway 2006 Galleri Osebro, Porsgrunn. Norway 2003 Future Player, A22 Gallery/Pollock Fine Art, London 2002 Galleri Carsten Frkjr, Copenhagen 2001 German Norwegian Chamber of Commerce, Oslo, Norway 2000 Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo, Norway 1998 First Edition, Courtyard, Dubai, UAE Sharjah Art Museum, UAE 1996 Mennesker, Galleri Bouhlou, Bergen 1994 Galleri C, rhus, Denmark 1993 Frozen Moments, October Gallery, London Filmfestivalen, Haugesund Billedgalleri, Norway 1992 The 12th Stockholm Art Fair/ Galleri Brandstrup, Bergen Kunstforening, Norway 1991 Galleri Wang, Oslo, Norway 1990 Galleri Asbk, Horsens, Danmark Sweger Konst, Stockholm, Sweden 1989 H Gamle Prestegrd, Norway

GROUP EXHIBITIONS ( a selection )

2012 Commonalities,curated by Noah Becker, NOoSphere Gallery , NYC, New York Landscape of Memory, No Format Gallery, London 2010 The Big World, Fabian and Claude Walter Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland Deptford X, London, UK Bloody Serious, Haugar Kunstmuseum, Srlandets Kunstmuseum, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway 2008 Valperga, Galerie Anna Klinkhammer, Dsseldorf, Germany Istanbul Art Fair, Galerie Anna Klinkhammer Swab Art Fair, Barcelona, Galerie Anna Klinkhammer 2006 Ibsen 2006, London, Berlin, Moscow, USA 2003 Art 2003 London, Pollock Fine Art 2002 Rest in Space, Kunstnerenes Hus, Oslo, Norway 2001 Galleri Carsten Frkjr, Copenhagen 1998 The Eyes of Reality, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Denmark 1993 Winter Visions, American Scandinavian Foundation, New York 1991 Nor-Arab Art Expo, Dubai, UAE

Hot Shot

Oil on canvas, 140 x 110 cm

GROUP EXHIBITIONS ( a selection ) continues

1990-2001 Norske Bilder, Rdhuset, Oslo 1986 Tension, B-Side Gallery, NYC, New York Silent Auction, B-Side Gallery, NYC, New York 11th Int. Print Biennale, Kanagawa, Japan 1985 Double Vision Show, Frank Bernaducci Gallery with B-Side Gallery, NYC, New York East Village, NYC , Sardye Bronfmann Center, Montreal, Canada Between Berlin and New York , Galleri Wang, Oslo, Norway Art- 85 , Galleri Riis, Trondheim, Norway 1984 New Math Gallery, NYC, New York Clocktower Gallery, NYC, New York B-Side Gallery, NYC, New York 8th. Int. Print Biennale, Bradford, UK 1983 Fem unge ute, Galleri Riis, Oslo, Norway 1982 International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway Nordic Prints, Galleri F-15, Moss, Norway Sunderland Art Center, England, UK Nordic Kunstcentrum, Sveaborg, Finland 1975 Statens Kunstutstilling, Oslo, Norway 1984 Lorck Schives Grant 1986-88 Norwegian National 3 years Artist Award 1992-94 Vederlagsfondet 1993 Ingrid Lindbck Langaard 1996 The Year most beautiful book, Mennesker by Amalie Skram / Therese Nortvedt

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS AND COMMISSIONS

Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway Astrup Fearnley Samling, Oslo, Norway Nationalmuseum, Oslo, Norway Nordic Kunstcentrum, Helsinki, Finland Statens Konstrd, Stockholm, Sweden Ramme Grd, Petter Olsen, Hvitsten, Norway Norsk Kulturrd, Oslo, Norway H.M Queen Sonjas Collection, Oslo , Norway Norwegian Culture Foundation, Norway Haugesund Billedgalleri, Norway Skien Billedgalleri, Norway Statoil, Stavanger, Norway ISS Facility Services, Stockholm, Sweden Telenor, Oslo, Norway Norges Musikkhyskole, Oslo, Norway Refsnes Gods, Moss, Norway Troms Fylke Trndelag Fylke Moss Kommune, Norway Vestby Kommune, Norway

AWARDS AND GRANTS

1975 Trondheim City Award 1976 Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond 1982-89 National Norwegian Artist Travel Award 1983-84 MoMa P.S.1 New York