Looking forward to this artist talk with writer and curator Ian Cofre at Yi gallery on April 29., 4-6 pm!
Meet Margrethe Aanestad - Interview with CanvasRebel Magazine, US, April 2023
Thanks to CanvasRebel Magazine for the opportunity to share thoughts about being a creative as an independent visual artist, my background story, the need for freedom and flow, and my fear for having a regular job.
The interview can be read in its full here.
Marco X Margrethe / a commission for Shine Portrait Studio, Newark, NJ, 2023
My collaboration with fashion designer Marco Hall, Newark, NJ, is launched! This is a commission by Shine Portrait Studio on Halsey street, Newark, NJ, and #3 of an ongoing series where visual artists are invited to collaborate with Newark resident Marco Hall. The five final garments are art+fashion pieces, and exists now in the permanent collection at Shine Portrait Studio - for use during future photo sessions. Below are photos from the Lookbook-workshop in March 2023. @shine_portraitstudio. Please click here to see the full collection.
Photo: Anthony Alvarez
Models: Lian Brooks, Tamalie
"Looking North", Yi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, March 18. - May 27., 2023
Looking North is a trio-exhibition opening March 18., 2023 at Yi gallery in Industry City, Brooklyn NY. I will be showing recent and earlier works alongside with Karyan Amaya (MX) and Shane Charles (US). Looking North will run through May 27. Please click here to see full exhibition.
Supported by City of Stavanger.
SARAHCROWN New York - Flat Files Project Feb. 7.-21., 2023
My hand made silkscreen prints serie “Eternal” (2020) Limited Edition, are included in the inaugural edition of SARAHCROWN New York´s new Flat Files Program. Metallic Gold, Mint-Turqouise, Peachy-Pink, on Somerset Satin Paper. 76x57 cm / 30x22.5 in.
Flat Files Program presents a curated selection of two-dimensional, unframed original artworks on paper such as drawings, paintings, collages, watercolors, prints, and photographs, while also including smaller scale works on panels or boards. The works can be purchased online or in-person at the gallery.
Please go to www.sarahcrown.com for details.
SARAHCROWN New York
373 Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Photo: Jan Inge Haga
"Tide - Story of Logo", 2022 is acquired for the Library Collection at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway
My recent artist-book “Tide - Story of Logo” is included in the Library collection at New National Museum in Oslo. The book is the latest release in the riso-print-serie “Plume House of Prayer” Series II, published in Nov., 2022, by Shine Portrait Studio Press in Newark, NJ. Editor: Nick Kline & Anthony Alvarez.
New artist-book release: “Tide - Story of Logo” - Plume House of Prayer Series II, published by Shine Portrait Studio, Newark, NJ., 2022
I am proud to finally share my new artist-book “Tide - Story of Logo” - the latest release in the “Plume House of Prayer” Series II, published by Shine Portrait Studio in Newark, NJ
Published Artists: Margrethe Aanestad, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Beau McCall, Adrienne Wheeler
Please click here to read more.
Publisher and Editor: Nick Kline
Finely crafted risograph and binding: Anthony Alvarez
Design: Chantal Fischazng.
10x10 inches (24,5x24,5 cm) - 99 ex. 65 pages. DM for purchase / details.
"Stille forvandling / Silent Metamorphosis", solo exhibition at Abbot´s House, Utstein Monastery, Museum Stavanger, Norway, July 3.-31., 2022
Stille Forvandling / Silent Metamorphosis - Solo exhibition in the newly renovated Abbot´s House by Utstein Monastery, Stavanger, Norway. Curated by Arnhild Sunnanå (NO), this is a parallell to my current foyer-exhibition at Utstein Kloster hotel close by, also curated by Sunnanå. Stille Forvandling / Silent Metamorphosis is on view July 3.-31., 2022.
Install view
Photo: Jan Inge Haga
Eternal XIV, commissioned by NYU Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Brooklyn
Iterations of the “Eternal”-series (circular, pastel-drawings made in very few, selected nuances, which I began in 2017) have been rendered in various scales, sequentially differentiated by roman numerals. Eternal XIV, 2021), defines the largest scale in the series (diameter 60 in / 150 cm). This one has s a dark blue tone - and is in company with only one other in same color and size (Eternal VI, 2018) located in Norway, currently on view at Utstein Kloster Hotel. Eternal XIV, 2021, was commissioned by NYU Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in 2019.
«The circle that is Eternal XIV, 2021 takes up a great deal of physical space. When framed it almost becomes a sculpture, a statement of scale and presence. At the same time, it also provides an immaterial negative space; serving as an entrance, a portal, a to a place to glimpse and contemplate what may lie ahead.» - (excerpt from the NYU statement). For more photos, please click here.
Photo: Devyn Nunes
"Blå toner, stedlig ro" at Utstein Kloster Hotel, Stavanger, Norway, March 30. - Sep 30., 2022
Blå toner, stedlig ro is a mini-exhibition featuring two of my earlier works in the foyer at Utstein Kloster Hotel in Stavanger, Norway, curated by Arnhild Sunnanå (NO). Opening March 30., 2022 - on view until September 30., 2022.
The Place, 2018, granite and marble, 29x26x15 cm
Photo: Jan Inge Haga
Skur2, Stavanger, Norway, "Silent Transition II" on view, March 8.-20., 2022
Photo: Anita Hamremoen
This month my large scale pastel drawing Silent Transition II (2020) is on view at Skur2 in Stavanger, Norway.
The work is generously included by photographer Anita Hamremoen, displayed alongside with her two parallell shows “Vi Femina” and “Another Place” in the gallery.
Feb 3 – May 26, 2022: Conversations with nature, exhibition at The Yard/Columbus Circle, Manhattan, NY, curated by Sarah Crown
Conversations with Nature, an exhibition featuring Alice Yaelin Yang and Margrethe Aanestad, is curated by SARAHCROWN founder Sarah Corona. Part of the Art in Lobbies program, the exhibition is a heartfelt gesture of human communication with nature, as it manifests itself in the cosmos. While Aanestad offers a transcendental approach to light, Yang channels emotion through landscapes. Their works, in their distinct methods and concepts of abstraction, converse with each other and what surrounds them. Conversations with Nature will run between February 3 – May 21, 2022 at The Yard: Columbus Circle’s three floors.
Silent Transition V, 2020, pastel chalk on paper, 86x42 in
Photo: Alexa Hoyer
My commissioned mural at Shine Portrait Studio in Newark, NJ is finally up!
My recent mural “Radiance” at Shine Portrait Studio @ Express Newark in Newark, NJ, completed this week.
Thank you for the opportunity to make a site spesific work at this magical place that facilitates and supports the expression and self-representation of the Newark, New Jersey community. Thank you Founder/Director Nick Kline & Studio Supervisor Anthony Alvarez for the opportunity.
Photo: Nick Kline
July-Aug 2021: Calm Glow part I & II, window installation on 523 Hudson Street in West Village, Manhattan, NY
The installation Calm Glow is presented by Art-in-Buildings Program / Time Equities Inc, curated by Eliana Blechman.
TEI is committed to enriching the experience of our properties through the Art-in-Buildings Program, an innovative approach that brings contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists to non-traditional exhibition spaces in the interest of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting environment for our building occupants, residents, and their guests. Click here to see the full photo serie. Photos: Curtis Kline
Calm Glow, Part I, July 2021
Calm Glow, Part II, August 2021
Sublime Encounters And Other Worlds, Residency Unlimited, New York, April 30. / May 1., 2021
Photo: Daniel Johnson
The group exhibition Sublime Encounters and Other Worlds at Residency Unlimited, NY, showcases recent and new works by Irene Mamiye (France/New York); Peter Erik Lopez (New York); Rotem Reshef (Tel Aviv/New York); Paul Wesenberg (Berlin); Margrethe Aanestad (Norway/New York). The exhibition is curated by Andrea Bell (New York).
Sublime Encounters and Other Worlds transports the viewer from the monotony of the everyday to other worlds that are digital and engulfing, dream-like and uncanny, graphic and elevating, infinite and fathomless.
In classical Western aesthetics, the beautiful and the sublime are discrete categories. The beautiful is easily pleasing, it upholds dominant cultural standards of symmetry, naturalism, even availability. It is the object of desire. But when met with the infinite and the unfathomable, the sublime is the experience of confronting the self. Perhaps this is why the sublime has only grown in relevance, while the classically beautiful has fallen away.
- Andrea Bell, Curator
Open April 30. & May 1. 11am – 7.30pm. 360 Court Street, Brooklyn (Subway F/G to Carroll Street).
Residency Unlimited is a non-profit art organization in Brooklyn, NY that fosters customized residencies for artists and curators working across disciplines and at various stages in their careers.
Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, NY, Feb - May 2021
I will finally enter my 3-months residency at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, NYC. Due to the pandemic we had to reschedule for almost a year!
I will be in company with international and NY-based artists and collaborate with Andrea Bell, RU-guest-curator 2021. During my residency I am furtunate to have my studio at Artists Alliance Inc. on LES, Manhattan. Thanks to RU. Many thanks to Excecutive Director and co-Founder Nathalie Angles, Boshko Boskovic and Ian Cofre.
The residency is partly made possible by Stavanger City Council and Rogaland County Council in Norway.
(Photo: Jan Inge Haga)
Review in Observer: ‘After Our Bodies Meet’ Explores Closeness And Intimacy In New Forms, Jan 28., 2021
After Our Bodies Meet at Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York. Photo: Daniel Johnson (courtesy Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY)
Review by Elly Belle in the Arts- and Aulture magazine Observer ..…In Margrethe Aanestad’s pieces, she explores gentleness in a perhaps unexpected way. “Stille Forvandling / Silent Transition V” and “Stille Forvandling / Silent Transition VI”, two long canvasses covered in pink hues of chalk, portray the meeting of unlikely subjects. You wouldn’t expect chalk on something besides a blackboard in a classroom or perhaps a sidewalk. In making them friends, letting the soft pastel purple and pink chalk fade slowly off the page until it’s barely noticeable, Aanestad shows the intimacy of the “after.” Often, we are either so caught in the moment or so worried about the future that we can’t feel the beautiful intensity of liminal space and transition periods. Aanestad is not afraid of these moments and captures them with grace and precision, the same way she does by placing marble over satin… (excerpt)
The group exhibition curated by Daniel Johnson features works by Margrethe Aanestad, Daniel Arturo Almeida, Dalia Amara, Cyriaco Lopes and Randy West.
Read the full review here
Hyperallergic highlights "After Our Bodies Meet" in art guide for January 2021
Your Concise New York Art Guide for January 2021: Dessane Lopez Cassell in Hyperallergic recommends the exhibition After Our Bodies Meet at Tiger Strikes Asteroid as one of 10 shows to visit in New York this month! The exhibition is curated by Daniel Johnson, featuring works by Daniel Arturo Almeida, Dalia Amara, Cyriaco Lopes, Randy West and myself. Currently on view, last day February 14.
After Our Bodies Meet / Tiger Strikes Asteoroides, New York, opening Jan 9., 2021
I am proud to announce that I will participate in a group exhibition at Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York, curated by Daniel Johnson (NY), opening on Januar 9., 2021. Titled After Our Bodies Meet, this exhitibion will include works by Daniel Arturo Almeida , Dalia Amara, Cyriaco Lopes, Randy West and myself.
In the novel Tar Baby, Toni Morrison wrote, “At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.” Exploring themes of love and memory, the artists in this show have created works that grapple with how we relate to each other and ultimately posit the question: What is enough? Whether through the investigation of familial bonds as with Almeida and Amara’s work, romantic love in West’s series, or the nature of being in the work of Aanestad and Lopes, the works in this show evoke an ethos of delicateness and a celebration of impermanence.
- Daniel Johnson, curator
Tiger Strikes Asteroid is a non-profit network of independently operated, artist-run exhibition spaces with locations in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Greenville, SC.
The gallery will be open every Sat & Sun from 3 – 6pm and by appointment, until February 14., 2021.
Cyriaco Lopes, Sunset (documentation of a performance), 1997, Inkjet Print, 4” x 6″
Virtual conversation with Open Source Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Nov 25., 2020
On Nov 25., 2020, I did a virtual conversation from my NYC-studio with Monika Wuhrer, Founder and Director of Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn (est 1997). I am proud to be on the Advisory Committee of the gallery since 2019. Open Source has been fundraising for one month now (Nov 7.-Dec 6.). This to support and secure the valuable existence of the space, which has been and still is facing the threat of closing because of the pandemic.
For this cause I donated two hand made silk screen prints, and as a gesture in return Open Source publishes online talks with many of the artists donating.
If you would like to watch the whole conversation I had with Monika, please click here or on the screenshot to the left.