ARE ANDREASSEN
KURT EDVIN BLIX HANSEN
MARIT BOCKELIE
ARNOLD JOHANSEN
LARS ERIK KARLSEN
RAGNA MISVÆR GRØNSTAD
RITA MARHAUG
CHRIS REDDY

The uneven, organic traces of the knife, or the laser’s precise burn — archaic and futuristic at once — this is woodcut today.

Why do so many modern and contemporary artists return to woodcut — this almost prehistoric method — in the midst of a high-tech age? In the 1930’s, the philosopher Walter Benjamin described woodcut as an early step towards what he called the age of mechanical reproduction. This, he argued, causes the aura — the unique, the authentic, the magical — to wither away.

Modernism, shaped by social transformation and the rise of technology, embraced reproduction as part of its course. Yet an impression made through physical contact — in which a carved matrix leaves a unique trace on the paper — allows the work to be multiplied, and thereby made accessible to more people, while still producing an ‘original, authentic copy’. In this way, the aura is held in the impression and shared through each print, for the thousand homes. Perhaps not a thousand, as the artist decides how many ‘original copies’ are to be printed, according to their own artistic strategies.

Woodcut manifests the aesthetics of slowness, where the knife cuts away everything unnecessary and carves forth what must be said. It is the wood’s resistance and its possibilities that seduce artists. And not least, woodcut is not merely a medium, but a way of thinking about the image.

The confident, decisive lines of the woodcut give the images a timeless character. The Confident Edge is not only the sharp line of the wooden block transferred onto the paper; it is also the artist’s trust in the cut, and their willingness to stand by a choice.

Welcome to this year’s summer exhibition with Are Andreassen, Kurt Edvin Blix Hansen, Marit Bockelie, Arnold Johansen, Lars Erik Karlsen, Ragna Misvær Grønstad, Rita Marhaug and Chris Reddy. These eight artists, all with ties to Northern Norway, show how woodcut can encompass great artistic variation: from the handmade, slow and analogue to expanded forms in which artists work with digital drawing, milling, laser cutting and relief.

Are Andreassen has previously worked with classical techniques in combination with new digital printing methods. In a world where fast-paced digital media and forms of expression have become increasingly dominant, he has chosen woodcut as his main medium: a graphic form in which contrasts create space for reflection and intimacy. He often works with multi-colour printing, combining traditional craftsmanship with reflections on globalisation, vulnerability and North Norwegian identity.

Andreassen is also the initiator and driving force behind Den Frie Presse in Bodø, a recently established print workshop that strengthens the North Norwegian art community by enabling large-format printing.

Kurt Edvin Blix Hansen is a painter and graphic artist. He is inspired by the North Norwegian and Arctic landscape, its light and maritime life. Works such as Håkon, as well as collaborative projects with Håkon Bleken and Are Andreassen, demonstrate an expressive approach to woodcut.

Landing depicts an eagle at the very moment it touches the ground, occupying the entire space within the perimeter of the print, as befits the king of birds. But is this a bird in nature, set against a stylised horizon, or is it a symbol of power, as used in heraldry in different ways across many cultures?

Marit Bockelie, mest kjent som «mosaikkens dronning», har en omfattende produksjon innen tresnitt fra sitt tidlige kunstnerskap. Med kraftige, rene farger og en karakteristisk stilisering skaper Bockelie bilder fulle av rytme og poesi – ofte med motiver fra Tromsø, Bodø og Lofoten, med musikanter, dansere og scener fra nordnorsk hverdag. Tresnittene hennes preges av en frodig fortellerglede der det figurative og det musikalske går hånd i hånd.

Arnold Johansen is an artist with a broad register of printmaking techniques. He has also made a distinctive contribution to the development of photo engraving in Norway. His woodcuts are characterized by monumental compositions with strong, expressive lines that contain his reflections on history, memory and North Norwegian identity.

The series presented in the exhibition is executed in the reduction technique, where a single wooden plate is used to print a multi-colour image. The artist cuts away parts of the plate for each colour, gradually «reducing» it until the final image is complete.

Johansen’s woodcuts convey an icon-like quality. There is both postwar drama and hope emanating from landscapes in which house burns, boat sinks and the heart is broken — yet the rhythm of the landscape and the strong use of colour make the image pulsate and the heart beat. The mother with the child offers hope; spring returns every year; and with Icarus, Johansen lifts the dream of breaking free from the Earth’s gravity.

Lars Erik Karlsen is a master of multi-colour woodcut, a technique he uses to create colourful, place-specific imagery from Lofoten and the north — as he experiences them during his sailing trips. Here, the landscape and seabirds, combined with mountains, sea and houses, gain a calm but powerful presence. His figurative compositions are characterised by a strong simplification of form and give the works a painterly expression that, when viewed up close, feels more abstract.

- I feel like I operate in the borderland between painting and graphic art. As Piero della Francesca has said, ‘Painting is very simple; it is only a matter of adding or subtracting.’ The moment I move into woodcutting, I must know exactly what I am doing. What you have cut away, you will never get back.

Ragna Misvær Grønstad creates large surrealist compositions set in imaginary underwater or aquatic landscapes. The series Saltwater Flowers, which the artist describes as visual joiks, is a herbarium of monumental flowers and plants that serve as tributes to thinkers, philosophers, and writers, including Hannah Arendt, Rachel Carson, Tove Jansson, Guy Debord and others, who have had a profound influence on her artistic practice and worldview. The raw, graphic force of the woodcut is particularly well suited to the allegorical layers, escapism and social criticism in her works.

Rita Marhaug works across disciplines including printmaking, drawing, performance, installation, artist books and sculpture. As a graphics artist, she often combines analogue drawing, digitally milled woodblocks and hand-cut details.

Allegory over Nordland VI is a cycle of woodcuts in which humans and animals are shown in interactions of an ambivalent nature. Many of the animals are classic trickster figures from Nordic folklore and fairy tales: the fox, the otter, the hare and others. A trickster is a human-like animal that engages in deception and cunning, challenging norms and hierarchies, often with chaotic and unpredictable consequences. Yet the trickster does not represent only chaos and disorder; it can also function as a catalyst for change, creativity and progress. In this way, the cycle explores dilemmas we face, whether privately or in society at large.

Chris Reddy is known by the name Reddymade. The starting point for his artistic practice is intuitive drawing that unfolds as a web of endless patterns. Reddy works, among other things, with plywood cut-outs: layered, carved plywood structures that begin as digital drawings, which are then cut out using a CNC machine and painted in multiple layers. These works have a hybrid character, existing between graphic art and relief. The motifs are often abstract or semi-figurative, with an emphasis on energy, manifestation and reflections on globalisation and the world order. - «It feels like we are living in a time when two high-speed trains are about to collide.»

The exhibition is curated by Luba Kuzovnikova.

Exhibition design in cooperation with Synne Grundel og Anette Fleischer/ Asplan Viak.

Special thanks to Svolvær kunstforening and collection Kunst i motbakke/ Galleri Lille Kabelvåg for loan of the art works by Marit Bockelie.

References in the exhibition text:

• Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1935/36)
• Georges Didi-Huberman, “La ressemblance par contact”, essay for the exhibition L’Empreinte at Centre Pompidou i 1997

Exhbition photography: Kjell Ove Storvik

Are Andreassen er født i 1957 i Tromsø, bor og arbeider på Fleinvær i Nordland. Han er utdannet fra Faculty of Art and Design i Cardiff, England (1980), og Kunstakademiet i Trondheim (1983–1987).

Kurt Edvin Blix Hansen was born in Beiarn, Nordland, in 1952, where he lives and works. He was educated at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (1973–1978).

Marit Bockelie was born in Bodø in 1933, grew up in Tromsø and lives and works in Asker and Tromsø. She was educated at the National College of Arts and Crafts (1953–1956), the Accademia di Belle Arti / Mosaic Academy in Ravenna, Italy (1956–1959), the National Art Academy in Oslo (1960–1964), as well as the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Instituto Verdi in Italy.

Arnold Johansen was born in 1953 in Nordreisa, grew up in Havøysund and lives and works in Tromsø. He was educated at the National Art Academy in Oslo (1974–1981/82).

Lars Erik Karlsen was born in 1948 in Trysil, and lives and works in Svolvær. He was educated at the National College of Arts and Crafts (1969–1973).

Ragna Misvær Grønstad was born in Lørenskog in 1984 and grew up in Bodø, where she lives and works. She was educated in medium- and material-based art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2012–2016).

Rita Marhaug was born in Bergen in 1965 and currently lives and works in Bergen and Vestvågøy in Lofoten. She was educated at the National College of Art and Design in Bergen (1984–1989), Vestlandets Kunstakademi (1992–1993) and the University of Bergen.

Chris Reddy was born in Harstad in 1970 and lives and works at Kvalnes in Lofoten. He was educated at the Art School in Kabelvåg (1991–1993), Tromsø University (1993–1994) and the National Art Academy in Oslo (1994–1999).