MILLIE BEHRENS

Rommet imellom / The Space in Between

26 September - 3 November 2024

A jewelry exhibition in silver and wood, exploring themes of growth, love, and repair.

The title reflects a common theme in all of Behrens jewelry, with a finely tuned balance of where the form should end and the exact measurement of the space between. Millie Behrens builds her jewelry piece by piece until a sense of balance is achieved.

Once again, trees and growth are central, where the tension between organic form and construction recurs as a consistent theme. Behrens draws inspiration from nature and is particularly interested in how time leaves its mark on everything around us, such as the furrows left by plows in the earth and the structured growth of branches, where soft lines meet strict geometry.

She is also fascinated by the process in which nature reclaims human-made structures, where trees and forests replace iron and concrete. Silver is her primary material, often combined with other materials such as gold, wood, pearls, and stones.

In recent years, Behrens has worked extensively with wood, and in this exhibition, she presents a selection of these pieces, along with a series in silver. Thematically, the series are linked through a stylized formal language and a focus on the significance of "the space in between."

The exhibition includes brooches, pendants, and bracelets.

Millie Behrens (born 1958) was educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and completed study programs at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design in Canada, as well as the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, USA, under Jamie Bennett. She lives and works in Slependen, near Oslo. Behrens has held several solo exhibitions at Kunstnerforbundet and galleries such as Lillestrøm Art Center, Sandefjord Art Association, Hå Prestegård, and Bærum Art Association, and has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Norway and abroad, including The Metropolitan Brewery in New York, Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Peder Balke Center, Collect in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.

Photos: Joachim Lagercrantz