Solid Air
Lars Korff Lofthus / Marianne Morild / Hanneline Visnes


1-22 December 2012
Gallery Open: Fri–Sun 12-6pm

Drop in for drinks, gingerbread
& bargains in our shop
on Saturday 22 December 12-6pm 
  
Marianne Morild, Inflight, 2012, bitumen & oil on wood, 122x111cm
Hanneline Visnes, Rose Painting, 2012, watercolour on paper, 37x42cm

Solid Air brings together three painters who come from the same western part of Norway but live and work between Norway, Scotland, England and Germany. There is a tradition of landscape painting in Norway and the deep, melancholic, slightly childish way of relating to landscape that all three of the Solid Air artists have relates to this Norwegian landscape tradition.

Why are Norwegians so preoccupied with landscape and nature?
The Norwegian word ånd implies some kind of transfer, of spirit or breath or of intellect, and in many ways sums up the way Norwegians relate to nature, a deep spiritual and bodily connection which is not religious. Ånd also implies a connection or belonging to a place, and the three artists are all from the fjords off the west coast of Norway, where the air is particularly clear since it is almost always raining. The exhibition aims to explore how this attitude of ånd might manifest itself across borders and how it affects the relationship to nature and belonging.

There is an online catalogue to accompany the exhibition with texts by Cathy Lomax and Benjamin Greenman.

 
        
Lars Korff Lofthus, Black Forest, 2012, ink on paper, 65x50cm
Hanneline Visnes, Morild, 2012, watercolour, gouache, acrylic, gesso & oil on paper, 24x34cm

 
Lars Korff Lofthus was educated at Nordiska Konstskolan (Finland), Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (Denmark) and Kunsthøgskolen I Bergen (Norway), where he graduated in 2009 with a Masters degree in Fine Art.
Lofthus primarily produces paintings, but also works with sculpture, text and installations. His works are characterised by a simplified and absurd approach to popular culture and identity of place.
Hanneline Visnes has worked as a lecturer at Glasgow School of Art since 2000, and has since 2003 been represented by Doggerfisher gallery in Edinburgh. She has exhibited widely in the UK as well as in Europe and was selected for Jerwood Contemporary Painters in 2010. Her works are concerned with the power we perceive from an object based on its monetary value, historical or religious significance.
Marianne Morild graduates from her MA at Central St. Martins in 2013. Her work was shortlisted for the Threadneedle Prize in 2009 and 2012 and her exhibitions include Equinox (2012) and Art Blitz (2010) both at Transition Gallery. She also writes for måg magazine and Garageland. Morild’s works centers around ideas and experiences of beauty and utilitarianism in our concerns with landscape.
View the Solid Air catalogue