Benjamin Slotterøy
FANGST
17 August - 23 September 2023
Coastal culture with its crafting traditions is an abundant environment where many different tools have been created and used by fishermen throughout generations. Many of these techniques are built on knowledge we are slowly losing. In the hunt for efficiency and profit modern fishing is turning away from its old traditions.
Usin traditional techniques in new ways glass artist Benjamin Slotterøy brings out organic shapes in black mouth-blown glass as a comment on the happenstance that occurs in nature's creations. His work can be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps these odd, misshapen glass globes from the deep are a warning from nature about having to rethink how we use and harvest from nature. Have we inadvertently trapped ourselves in our desire to get as much as possible out of nature? What must we change to achieve harmony with Earth? The relationship between nature and humans is volatile, marked by a power struggle of technology and relentless natural forces.
The woven nets around the glass pieces are the result of a collaboration with fisherman Torstein Grønning from Sleneset in Lurøy and macramé artisan Susanne Gustavsson from Kollingsö in Sweden. For the artist the ropes are a new method of drawing on the glass, creating lines between past and present, tradition and progress. The ropa work draws visual comparisons to bondage with the tight knots simultaneously restraining and accommodating the fragile glass.
Benjamin Slotterøy is an artist and curator based in Stockholm and Solværøyene in Northern Norway. He has been a part of exhibitions at Rian design museum and Galleri Format Oslo, and the touring exhibition Nordnorsken 2022. Slotterøy is represented in the collections of Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Rhösska museet Gothenburg, and KODE - Kunstmuseene i Bergen.
Susanne Kathlen Mader
ALLER-RETOUR
17 August - 23 September 2023
The title references the experiences of the artist on her recent travel to Cabanas in southern Portugal. The lush landscapes, mild temperatures and magnificent lighting by the great Atlantic ocean sparked a new series of paintings titled CABANAS.
Mader draws inspiration from nature and music and sees colors as an integral part of her work. In an intuitive process she builds abstract compositions through layers of colorful shapes. Each painting is a balancing act of the strong and delicate, heavy and light, harmony and discord, where eventually every line, color and shape finds its place.
In addition to paintings the exhibition features sculptures in welded steel. Mader's signature balance reveals itself in the juxtaposition of the rough material and the delicate lines which seem to blur the lines between two and three dimensions.
Susanne Kathlen Mader studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig and has had a number of exhibitions both in Norway and internationally, including exhibitions at Oslo Kunstforening, Kunstnerforbundet Oslo, Kunstbanken Hamar, Galerie Laurent & Laurent Nice, and Frauenmuseum Bonn.