A collection of photographs, paintings, videos, and mixed media, Northern (L)attitudes: Norwegian and American Contemporary Art celebrates the works of nine provocative contemporary artists (four American, five Norwegian) all of whom are American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) Fellowship recipients: Eric Aho, Marion Belanger, Lene Berg, Sandra Binion, Kjell Bjørgeengen, Ole Martin Lund Bø, Unn Fahlstrøm, Nina Katchadourian, and Are Mokkelbost.
A transatlantic cross-pollination of concepts and mediums, Northern (L)attitudes explores how each country’s geography, environment, and culture informs the work of the artist. The exhibition highlights intersections of cultural exchange and how they occur.
As evident through their works, the American artists were clearly taken with Scandinavia’s flora and fauna, keenly observing and investigating its geography, climate, vegetation, and wildlife through paintings interpreting ice and forest, and photographs and video delineating landscape, rocks and animal behavior.
In contrast, the Norwegian artists are occupied with societal conventions and visceral intangibilities. During their time in the United States, these artists drew inspiration from politics, sound, and the visual rhetoric of power and color, among other things.