Norway 2005 exhibition:
NØRWÅY
- Nationality and Identity
Webgallery
May 12th - September 2nd.


Michael O´Donnell 		Michael O´Donnell uses juxtaposition and contradiction – negation – as an effective artistic method.
This is evident throughout his work as an artist: no sooner has he made his light installations cast their rays out into the world than he finds a way to stop them, by enclosing them in pure gold. No sooner has he made a self portrait, and thus asserted his identity, than he undermines it by making eighteen hundred of them. No sooner has he emphasized the space between the exhibitions than he pulls them all together in a great chaotic maze. This is a contrapuntal way of making art generate meaning; and this meaning is always multi-faceted in O’Donnell’s work. He is here in line with Jacques Derrida’s theories of rhetoric in nonfiction texts – in his sculptures and installations O’Donnell shows that these can also be applied to the visual arts
   

Sigmund da Silva Lien
Sigmund da Silva Lien. Many young artists have drawn away from abstract painting, which has dominated directly, and more indirectly European art for nearly half a century. Some build their work on a photographic image and electronic media. Others connect themselves to the great European painting tradition. S da Silva Lien belongs to the former category. He seeks his ideals and mastery of learning from the classics of history, minting his pictorial world in portraits, landscapes, and allegorical scenes. The pictures demonstrate vast knowledge of iconography and techniques of the Old Masters', which he worships, masters and cultivates. First and foremost the pictures reveal an extra-ordinary coloristic gift, which gives Sigmund da Silva Lien already at this point in his career a concrete and very individual placement among his colleagues. The colour mastery is built meticulously within the portrait's character studies and has a freer, mellow interplay in the landscapes. In the allegorical and symbolically laden pictures, the painter shows temperance and engagement and sovereign colour mastery, with references to his classical forbearers. Per Hovdenakk, Former director of Sonia Henie-Onstad Art Center Oslo, Norway.
   

Ragnhild Steig Svenningsen

Ragnhild Steig Svenningsen's expression in art expands from strict minimalistic landscapes to creative dramas in painting and photo. Her expression through ornaments are unique. She works both abstract and figurative, with great skills, sensitivity and insight. She uses her unique artistic intuition to create an organic holistic understanding, as well as sensitive details. It is an unusual and daring project to bring flat ornamental elements as traditional Norwegian rose -painting, graffiti or calligraphy into a classic dynamic depth perspective. By consciously using the scale of colours and firm holistic geometry does she master the balance in getting close to the classic baroque contra rhythm. Tor Sværd Sørensen, Art historian and artist.
   

Jan Valentin Sæther
Jan Valentin Sæther (b. 1944 in Oslo, Norway) works in several media, his main technique being oil painting. Saether has lived and worked in Los Angeles for more than twenty years, but moved back to Norway in 1995. He has since then focused on exhibiting in Scandinavia. His works explore different concepts of memory and culture. By withdrawing information he seeks to emphasize that which remains. Saether held the chair of figurative painting at the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, Norway 1996-2002. He is represented in several collections, both in Norway and the U.S. He was recently awarded the Norwegian Government’s Guaranteed Income for Artists. For more information and samples of his art, please visit his home pages: www.janvalentinsaether.com.