NADA East Broadway is pleased to host Norwegian Situations, a group exhibition featuring ten artists working in the contemporary Norwegian art scene. The exhibition is presented by SITUATIONS and curated by Jackie Klempay.
Artists: Ryan Cullen, Naomi Fisher, Henrik Olai Kaarstein, Kornelia Remø Klokk, Kim Laybourn, Kobie Nel, Ann Cathrin November Høibo, Louis Schou-Hansen, Tanja Thorjussen, and Bobby Yu Shuk Pui.
Performances: Elizabeth Hart and Naomi Fisher, Louis Schou-Hansen, Ivan Lee
The exhibition will be on view from August 15th through September 20, 2024 at 311 East Broadway, 2nd Floor, with an opening reception on Thursday, August 15, 6–8pm.
Press Release:
SITUATIONS is proud to announce Norwegian Situations, a group exhibition of prominent emerging and mid-career artists working in the contemporary Norwegian art scene, curated by SITUATIONS owner and director Jackie Klempay. Hosted at NADA East Broadway, the exhibition functions as a regional survey, seen through the lens of a personal travelog.
In June 2022, Klempay traveled to Norway through the NADA UKS Residency program, immersing herself in the scenes of Oslo and Bergen over the course of three weeks. Through her numerous visits with artists, curators, and gallerists working and exhibiting in these cities, Klempay noted that experimentation was valued above any practical or commercial concerns. Norway collectively believes and invests in cultural production as a vital component within a thriving society, in turn empowering resident artists to embrace bold ideas over more familiar approaches. The group of artists selected for this exhibition challenge their viewers through a variety of material and conceptual strategies, offering unique perspectives on navigating the contemporary human condition and their surrounding environment.
Throughout the exhibition, themes of transformation, ephemerality, and adaptation recur. Kim Laybourn and Tanja Thorjussen consider change from an ecological perspective in their works, using symbols of flora and fauna to examine the complicated relationship between humanity and nature. Laybourn’s film places viewers directly into an anthropomorphic landscape in motion, honing in on the forces that change and ultimately destroy nature. Thorjussen’s drawing triptych reimagines the symbol of the snake through the lenses of modern science and ancient cultures, expanding upon the creature’s metaphoric potential.
Reinterpreting Norwegian textile tradition through contemporary means and materials, Ann Cathrin November Høibo’s hanging tapestry is silkscreened with a reflected image of interwoven braids. Kornelia Remø Klokk’s tapestry likewise looks to the history of weaving, while interjecting with allusions to digital life and bodily transformation. Her crimson sculptural figure emphasizes the body’s potential to pique both desire and disgust, and the uncomfortable proximity of those sentiments. Employing speculative fiction to delve into themes of human genetic engineering, Bobby Yu Shuk Pui’s “Genetic Salon” project proposes new dialogues around gender, identity, and the human body. Henrik Olai Kaarstein’s abstract, painterly installation recasts lived-in everyday objects as potential surfaces and supports. A worn, gathered skirt of fabric and shattered, tempered glass bear impressions of the past while assuming new form and context through their combination.
An evening of performances will take place at 7:30pm on the night of the opening reception within the exhibition space. Louis Schou-Hansen taunts the homophobic ghost of American composer Charles Ives. Elizabeth Hart enacts a dancer’s warm-up routine, activating the ballet bar built into the surface of Naomi Fisher’s Edvard Munch-inspired painting. Ivan Lee’s taps into the sonic potential of plants to create a botanical soundscape.
As a whole, the exhibition offers an intimate portrait of the variety of innovative artwork currently being made by artists living and working in Norway, but not exclusively by those born in Norway. Like New York, Oslo and Bergen are incredibly cosmopolitan, and the artists of Norwegian Situations are from all over the world. By presenting the different ways in which they engage with Norway’s unique history, culture, and environment, the exhibition explores how artistic affinities are established in relation to a particular place. Offering distinct perspectives on the current moment, the exhibition establishes a cultural exchange between the close-knit creative communities based in these Norwegian cities and the sprawl of New York’s art scene.
For more information please visit situations.us or contact [email protected]. For press requests, please contact Renee Delosh at [email protected].
This exhibition is generously supported by the Norwegian Consulate General in New York, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), and Flanders State of the Art. Special thanks to Heidi Olufsen, Consul General and Ari Tiziani, Adviser, Arts & Culture.