Lena Walton Herfindal

Red Thread

9 November - 17 December 2023

Herfindal alternates between creating jewellery, drawings, installations and embroideries, the latter being her main interest in recent years. She works intuitively with different materials in order to create a space for self-reflection. Key themes in her artistic practice are nature, anatomy and her Mohawk roots, for which proximity to nature is central. She takes recourse in growth process such as flowering, bud formation and the development of bodily organs, and she studies their cultural symbolism. Her works often take shape as organic forms with bright colour combinations and thin lines. She frequently combines geometrical and organic idioms and sometimes adds elements of figuration.

Using an intuitive process, each work is created there and then. The flow of lines and the structure of a work happens in the moment when each line, colour and form follow what already exists. ‘Red Thread’ is a series of wall embroideries that have given Herfindal the opportunity to explore a larger format.

There is a strong connection between Herfindal’s works. The line is recognisable and recurs in all she creates, and there is always evidence of creative energy and drive. She thinks of her production as a kind of visual diary, a view on the world, a series of unspoken thoughts and dream-like appearances of colour. Regarding this series of embroideries; Herfindal has felt the absence of her grandmother who passed away a few years ago. The woman was a powerful voice for her and very involved in her art. She must now approach her art without her grandmother’s presence. But she never forgets what her grandmother said: Never stop. Always keep going.

Lena Walton Herfindal (b. 1985, Stord) lives and works in Oslo. She has a master’s degree (2018) in medium- and material-based art from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her solo exhibitions have been held at galleries such as RAM Galleri in Oslo (2023), Det gule huset in Nesbru (2022) and Stord Kulturhus in Leirvik (2020). She has also participated in group exhibitions at galleries such as Kunstnerforbundet, Galleri Giga, Skog art Space and Format in Oslo. Herfindal has been actively involved in facilitating public involvement with art through the nation-wide ‘Cultural Schoolbag’ programme and by holding several workshops at Buskerud kunstsenter in Drammen and through the ‘Kunstvisitten’ programme organised by NITJA Centre for Contemporary Art in Lillestrøm.

Aron Li

Symbiosis

9 November - 17 December 2023

Have you ever stood next to an old tree and observed the massive strength of the trunk, the furrowed surface of the bark, the branches rising outwards, the roar of the wind in the leaves and the roots penetrating the earth? This is a mighty organism. If you take a little more time and look closely at the trunk, you can see that the rough surface is covered with moss and lichen. Not just one, but many, many different types of lichen grow on the trunk. Suddenly a distinct landscape emerges. These are small and unnoticed, but not insignificant organisms. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, just on the trunk of a single tree.

Aron Irving Li

In the exhibition, Aron Irving Li reflects on the function, role and significance of a single organism in a larger ecosystem. He aims to shed light on what we do not necessarily notice in nature: the small details. Li uses lichen’s beautiful and intricate forms as a spawning ground for sculpture. The works unfold in a larger format, with metal as the medium for rendering nature’s visual language. Li cuts and saws out elements from thin copper plates; through careful and time-consuming processes such as hammering and soldering, he transforms them into organic sculptures. The thin metal gives the sculptures a sense of lightness and fragility at the same time as it has an inherent quality of something permanent and strong. The artist subjects the sculptures to chemical processes that enable the metal’s own range of colours to emerge. Patinated surfaces in green, blue and brown tones are combined with the strong red from fired linseed-oil pigments and the dark grey tones of graphite.

Aron Irving Li (b. 1989, Sweden) is an Oslo-based artist with a master’s degree (2015) from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He has held several solo exhibitions at Norwegian art centres and galleries such as Vestfold kunstsenter (2022), Galleri Giga, Leirvik (2021), Østfold kunstsenter (2020), Buskerud kunstsenter (2019) and Kunstbanken, Hedmark kunstsenter (2018). Li is represented in collections such as the City of Oslo Art Collection; the National Museum, Oslo; KODE, Bergen; and Nordenfjeldske, Trondheim. He has created works of public art for Oppdal Sports Hall (2021) and Oksenøya Nursing Home, Fornebu (2023).