Sami Center for Contemporary Art invites to the third exhibition in the series Time for Sculpture. The audience will encounter works of art that can help to think, among other things, about the use of everyday objects, the use of materials, as well as putting objects in a new context – so that something new and often unexpected occurs. Several of the artists have an eye for materials that one might not initially think of can be used in works of art.
The exhibition shows three-dimensional works by 11 Sami artists who work playfully and with a freer relationship with material use. This includes models, mixed-technique objects, objet trouvé (found object). Various types of everyday materials are used by several of the artists, worked or unprocessed. Another track to pursue in the exhibition is the term mixed media, which in can be almost anything, but describes an art that cannot be categorized within the traditional media such as painting nor graphics.
All the artworks included in this exhibition belongs to the Sami Art Magazine / RiddoDuottarMuseat. The exhibition follows as the third in this series where director at Sami Center for Contemporary Art, Kristoffer Dolmen is curator.
– In connection with this work, I have reviewed the entire collection for the Sami Art Magazine and really gained insight into what the diversity collection holds. Richly represented in the collection, is traditional crafts and material use, but also recent art from the leading Sami contemporary artists today, such as Geir Tore Holm, Kristin Tårnesvik and Outi Pieski who are all represented by works in the exhibition Time for Sculpture # 3, says Dolmen.
As a curator, Dolmen has a special interest in sculpture and three-dimensional art, and having worked with three exhibitions this winter, he has got a stronger desire to work also outdoors with art.
– Sculpture in the landscape or where else we go is something that makes the art to to mean something in everyday life, we see with Aase Texmon Rygh’s sculpture standing in the schoolyard here in Karasjok, everyone who has attended school here has a relationship with it.
The exhibition is carried out in collaboration with Sami Art magazine / RDM.
Exhibition periode 21 of June to 18 og August 2019.
Participating artists
The exhibition comprises 11 artists and they are resident in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and they are: Tomas Colbengtson, Geir Tore Holm, Svein Flygari Johansen, Annelise Josefsen, Iver Jåks, Inger Blix Kvammen, Elly Mathilde Novvale, Outi Pieski, Katarina Pirak Sikku, Lena Stenberg and Kristin Tårnesvik.
Tomas Colbengtson is a Sami artist, born 1957 in Tärnaby, Sweden and today he is based in Stockholm. He has his education from Konstfack in Stockholm and Valand school in Gothenburg. He often takes his point of departure in his own family history, and his identity from a South Sami area in Sweden in his artistic work. He has worked for a long time with silk screen printing on various types of glass and aluminum. He is very active on the exhibition front and has several exhibitions annually. He is well represented in public collections in Sweden and Norway in particular. In 2019 a new book was published on his artistry.
Geir Tore Holm is born in 1966 and grew up in Manndalen, Kåfjord municipality in Troms. Today he lives and works in Ringstad in Skiptvedt (Østfold). His artistic practice is broad and versatile. He works with video, photography, performance and installations. After completing the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim in 1995, he has worked extensively within the art field as an artist, curator, producer, teacher and writer. In 2018, he had his recent solo exhibition at SDG. In 2015, he received the first awarded Savio award.
Svein Flygari Johansen (b. 1959) and he is from Alta, where he resides today. He graduated from Einar Granum Art School, the Western Academy of Fine Arts, and the art academies in Helsinki and Copenhagen. Since the 1990s, he has been particularly active on the art scene in Norway. He has a number of exhibitions, several decorations and purchases. He has also been active as a curator and writer. He often uses Finnmark and the North as a starting point for his artistic projects which often have a conceptual character.
Annelise Josefsen (b. 1949) is from the Sea Sami family in Sæterfjord in Kvalsund municipality and is currently living in Kokelv. She works with various techniques as stone and more perishable materials. She is particulary known as a sculptor with several public monuments and adornments in addition to participation in countless exhibitions. Her art education is from the West Academy’s art academy. She is currently active as head of artistic for SDG and member of the foundation SDG’s board.
Iver Jåks (1932-2007) lived the most of his life in Karasjok, but from the early 1990s he had an apartment in Tromsø and was appointed Artist in Residence at Tromsø University. His career was long and diverse – he is particularly known for his wood and bone sculptures and several adornments (several of which are in Karasjok). His education was among other things, at the National Crafts and Art Industry School and the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His extensive work has great importance to the Sami art environment.
Inger Blix Kvammen (b.1954) lives and works in Kirkenes. As an artist she is self-taught, with an academic education at the bottom. She has among other things, taken various courses in the USA and England that have contributed to her artistic development. She is a metal and jewelry artist, and works with textile techniques in metal (weaving / crochet). The result can also be in the form of sculptural objects. The recent years, she has also used photography in her exhibitions and draws much of her inspiration from traveling in the Barents region and from far distant places.
Elly Mathilde Novvale Johnsen (1930-2011) She grew up in Grovfjord in Skånland municipality in Troms. First she attended the National Crafts and Art Industry School (1956-1959), then the National Academy of Arts (1959-1963) and completed at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden (1965-66). She experienced recognition for her work and received several scholarships, and from 1979 she had the State’s guarantee income for artists. She concentrated about her Sami background and she often came back to northern Norway.
Outi Pieski (b. 1973) is from Utsjoki muncipality, Finnish Lappland. She is living and working in Utsjok and Helsinki. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. She works formally with painting, collage and installation. In Karasjok everyone who visits the Sami Parliament newest part of the building will be able to see her textile ceiling installation. In 2018, she has had two major exhibitions in Finland at the EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and at the Art Museum in Oulu. At this year’s Venice Biennale she is a central artist in the Finnish pavilion. SDG displays her recent art works in an exhibition in september 2019.
Katarina Larsdotter Pirak Sikku (b. 1965) is an artist who works versatile with painting, drawing, graphics, photography, text and installation. She is the daughter of the artist Lars Pirak and she grew up in Jokkmokk; Sweden. Katarina is graduated at the Gerleborg School in Bohuslän and at the Umeå Art Academy. She is currently employed as an artistic director at the Center for Gender Studies at Uppsala University. She has in her artistic work among other things, been concerned with the racial biology studies of the Sami that were made in the early 1900s.
Lena Stenberg (b. 1961) in Kiruna, Sweden. Her artistic work has often moved between different historical reflections and political issues. Stenberg mainly work with three-dimensional works of sculptural objects, installations and photography. Nature, culture, identity and questions about belonging are often themes that inspires her. She is educated at Konstfack in Stockholm 1986-90. She has shown her works in a number of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions, as well as with several public decoration assignments.
Kristin Tårnesvik (b. 1964) is from Kåfjord municipality in Troms, but she has been living and working in Bergen since 1999. She holds a major in photography from the Department of Specialized Art at the Bergen Academy of the Arts in 2004. The starting point for her artistic work was photography, but today she works just as easily with drawing, painting, graphics and text. Tårnesvik has shown her works in a number of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions, as well as with several public decoration assignments. She is currently living in Lillehammer where she has a one-year work stay at the artist’s home after Jakob Weidemann.
