Solo show at Kunstbanken Art Center in Hamar, Norway opened at Jan 21st 2023. This show features a brand new sculpture installation piece titled Days are shorter now, but I won't let the darkness get me and the Abendland-series of woodcut prints. The show stays open until March 12th. For more go to Kunstbanken.
On the 1st of April 2022 the exhibition The queer gaze opened at KODE Bergen Art Museum. The almost 160 works from Classical antiquity to the present day address topics ranging from camp aesthetics, cruising culture and Greek myths to 19th century spinster culture. The narratives are about expectations of femininity and masculinity, about gender identities and about same-sex love and desire.
A selection of prints from the Abendland series by Mattias Härenstam are among the exhibited works for the show curated by Bjørn Hatterud and Mathias Skaset. The show will be up until the end of the year. More info at KODE.
Marit Paasche has curated a permanent project with artists Marthe Ramm Fortun and Mattias Härenstam for KORO (Public Art Fund, Norway) and the Bergen University Museum (Museum of Natural History. The project is titled The Voice of Minerva and consists of a series of photographs and a yearly performace over the next ten years by Marthe Ramm Fortun and two large scale sculptures in wood by Mattias Härenstam. Härenstams sculptures are titled Specimen and Observers and they are both hung between floors of the museum. The inaugeration of the completly renovated museum along with the art work took place on Oct 14 2019. The work will be on permanent display at the museum. More at the KORO webpage.
Mattias Härenstam is showing the woodcuts of the ongoing the Nordby series at Trafo Kunsthall, Asker. This is the first time as all six of the completed prints are shown in an exihibition setting.
The show is part of the centennial jubilee of Norske Grafikere (Association of Norwegian printmakers) and presents three artists working with different aspects of printmaking. The other two are Ellen Karin Mæhlum and Trude Johansen.
The show opens on Sat Oct 12 at 13.00 and will stay open until Nov 17. More at the Kunsthall webpage.
Norske Grafikere in Oslo opens a new solo show by Mattias Härenstam on Sat Oct 5 at 13.00. The show is titled Abendland and presents for the first time the complete series of staged selfportraits. In all 20 smaller prints and one larger are included in the show which stays open until Nov 2 2019. Opening hours Tue, Wed, Fri 10 - 17, Thu 10 - !8, Sat 12 -16. Adress: Tollbugata 24, Oslo. More info at Norske Grafikere.
Haugesund Art Museum and Haugesund Fine Arts Society are the organizers of the first HIT-festival (Haugesund International Woodcut and Print Festival). It takes place from May 9 - May 12 2019 and features seminars, workshops and a large exhibition of woodcut prints from all over the world. Mattias Härenstam will give a lecture on his work with woodcuts on Sat May 11th and also takes part in the exhibition with the print September (Dirt road). More info at the festival webpage.
As part of the celebration of 100 years of Norske Grafikere (Norwegian Graphic Artist Union), Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum in Tromsø, presents a show titled Avtrykk (Imprints). The exhibition features various prints from the museum collection, among them In the woods by Mattias Härenstam. The show opens on May 5th 2019 and will be open until the end of the year. See the museum webpage for more info.
On Fri Nov 23rd the group show Bare mennesket lager rette linjer (Only humans draw straight lines) opens at Norsk Billedhoggerforening (Norwegian Sculptors Society) in Oslo. The show looks at "biomorphism" in sculpture. Mattias Härenstam is showing the piece Sketch for a re-animation V (...no one was to blame really, but still). Other artists in the show are Lise Amundsen, Eyvind Solli Andreassen, Lissette Escobar, Anneke von der Fehr, Ellen Grieg, Carl Martin Hansen, Johannes Block Hellum, Karina Herteig, Aleksander Jæger, Ervin Løffler, Henry Moore, Knut Odden, Aase Texmon Rygh, Thor Sandborg, Martin Stråhle and Hanne Tyrmi. The show will be up until Jan 13th. More info at Norsk Billedhoggerforening.
On Saturday Nov 1st an exhibition curated by Elin Melberg and Margrethe Aanestad of Prosjektrom Normanns opens at Stavanger Kunsthall. Their selection include works by Norwegian artists A K Dolven, Vibeke Tandberg, Mattias Härenstam, Ane Graff and American artist Nathlie Provosty, as well as works by Melberg ans Aanestad themselves. Härenstam will show Portrait of a smiling man at the Kunsthall and parallel with the exhibition at Kunsthall Stavanger, there will be a video work (Reconstruction) by Mattias Härenstam on view offsite at Prosjektrom Normanns.
The show will be up until Dec 16th. More info at Stavanger Kunsthall.
Mattias Härenstam has been invitated to do a project with Trykkeriet - Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Bergen. This has resulted in the a series of new wood cut self-portraits titled Abendland. On Sat Oct 13 at 8 pm an exhibition of the series opens at the Trykkeriet Showroom, Fjøsangerveien 70a in Bergen. More at their webpage.
