At work in his art studio in Asker

Magne recently opened two solo exhibitions in the Ålesund area on June 13th; Extra Super Plus at Khåk Kunsthall in Ålesund and Völuspá in the visitors center at Alnes Fyr.

Völuspá is believed to be the world’s longest graphic print, with a length of 25 meters. It’s inspired by the famous 10th century poem of the same name from the Poetic Edda, and in particular the first English translation of it from the 1800s. Here is a picture of Magne in front of Völuspá.

“I’ve visited Alnes before, and have dreamt of hanging such an image on this particular wall since I first came here. You may call it Corona-madness, the idea of creating such a large continuous graphic print from one roll of paper. It took five printmakers five days to make it, followed by a month of drying. I am very pleased to see it up on the wall now. An entire roll of this paper is 90 meters long, so perhaps that will be the ambition for my next project”, Magne told newspaper Sunnmørsposten (paywall) with a laugh.

Details from Völuspá

“These are two seperate exhibitions, but there is a dialogue between them. The exhibition at Khåk has been carefully planned, and includes a selection of works that I’ve been working on for the last one and a half years, and during the entire corona period. It’s a large exhibition and the most important for me this summer. The exhibition at Alnes is inspired by me binge-watching Vikings and a fascination for the tales in old norse literature, combined with the fact that this area carries a lot of history from that era”, Magne says.

Extra Super Plus includes a selection of oil paintings, woodcut monotypes, ceramic works and a smaller, 4-meter version of Völuspá. It will remain open until August 15th. An online exhibition catalogue is available here. The main version of Völuspá at Alnes Fyr can be seen until August 8th.

The day before, June 11th, another Furuholmen exhibition opened as part of the Petter Dass literature festival in Alstahaug. A video of the opening, with Magne joining via videolink (at 18:50), has been posted on Vimeo.

There is also a new video about Magne’s printmaking process, posted by Queen Sonja Print Award, which can be seen on Facebook.

And another summer exhibition of his art will be held at Galleri Sagesund in Tvedestrand from 18 July – 8 August.