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Margrethe Aanestad
Born 1974 in Stavanger, Norway Lives and works in Stavanger, Norway and Brooklyn, NY Aanestad works in drawing, painting and sculpture, using various techniques on paper and canvas, such as pastel sticks and watercolour, and several materials (mostly found objects) in her sculptural projects, for example textile or marble. Thematically her work revolves around vulnerability in human existence, versus the infinite and overwhelming vastness in nature and the universe. This knowledge and sensation - as a surrounding, inescapable state - is something we never can completely hold, but have moments of understanding and grasping, as personal experiences. Aanestads work aims to materialise this; the notion of the volatile, immediate in human life, versus the brutal supreme forces in nature, and the idea of eternity. Her language alternates according to those contrasting dimensions, and goes between expressive, ephemeral gestures and shapes to the more defined, meditative and repetitive techniques and expressions, balancing on the egde between raw and very subtle and sensitive touches. Materiality and the tactile qualities are of huge importance in her practise work - as physical beholders and fragments of the ungraspable. Bio: Solo exhibitions include Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (2018); Torrance Shipman Gallery, New York (2015); Dimensions Variable, Miami (2015); Open Source Gallery, New York (2013). Selected group exhibitions: Interface gallery, Oakland, CA (2019); Vestlandsutstillingen, a travelling juried exhibition shown at several art institutions in Norway (2019); Dimensions Variable, Miami (2016); Another Space, Copenhagen (2014); Interno4, Bologna (2013); ISCP, New York (2012); The 124. Annual National Art Exhibition in Norway, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2011). Public collections include University in Stavanger (2016); Stavanger City Council (2016); British Petroleum, Norway (2016). Aanestad studied fine arts at the Rogaland Art College and graduated in 2000 with a BA from the University of Stavanger in Culture&Art Management including Art History and Aesthetic Philosophy. She is co-founder and co-director of the non-profit, artist run space Prosjektrom Normanns in Stavanger, which she also has participated with at Untitled Art Fair in Miami and San Francisco over several years. Aanestad is also co-founder and co-owner of the creative studio/working space ELEFANT in Stavanger, Norway. Upcoming projects includes duo show at Abingdon Studios, Blackpool, UK (2019), and residency at Residency Unlimited, New York, May 1.- August 1., 2020. www.margretheaanestad.com |
Image List
Home page: The Place, 2018 Photo credit:: Hasain Rasheed Jan Inge Haga Fransesco Casale Morten Berentsen All images and copyright courtesy of the Artist. |