Posts Tagged ‘queen sonja’

Magne and Queen Sonja open new exhibitions

Queen Sonja and Magne, 27 August 2020
(Screenshot from NRK)

Magne and Queen Sonja were at the Soli Brug Gallery yesterday, for a press preview of two new exhibitions that are opening today.

This time they are not exhibiting together, as in 2016, instead they each present a new solo exhibition. Magne’s is called Ornament, while the Queen’s is called Utsnitt. In total there are around 150 new pieces.

Magne has been an artistic mentor for Queen Sonja for a number of years now, and their joint projects have brought them to Denmark, Sweden and the USA. Last month they were on a trip to Northern Norway.

“We have travelled around together, and it’s really fun and inspiring for me to listen to him”, the Queen told the press yesterday.

“And it’s inspiring for me to see that it’s possible to have this level of energy when you’re past your fifties”, Magne (57) jokingly told the Queen (83).

“I was surprised to see how many new works she’s made, including a number of excellent graphic prints. So it’s great to see that she is continually coming up with new and interesting things.”

The Queen commends Magne on the new colourful works he’s got on display:

“I’m familiar with parts of Magne’s production, but this time I’ve noticed new and interesting details, including more use of colours. That’s something we’ve discussed, because he’s been more focused on a darker pallette.”

“The truth is rather that I used colours more sparsely when the Queen and I worked together in the past”, Magne replied. “Her use of colours has inspired me.”

See a selection of photos from the exhibitions on Soli Brug’s Facebook page here and here. The exhibitions are open from 28 August – 20 September.

Links:
Aftenposten: Dronningen og Magne Furuholmen inspirerer hverandre – åpner utstillinger sammen
NRK TV: Dronningen og Furuholmen stiller ut på Soli Brug

“Texture” opening in Bodø

“It’s great to be back in Bodø”, Magne told NRK

Magne was in Bodø last Thursday, March 9th, for the opening of another exhibition of his Texture collaboration with HM Queen Sonja. This is the fifth out of six planned Texture exhibitions in Norway and the UK.

“It’s fun for me to see this exhibition [in Bodø], as it includes some works that haven’t been shown before. Particularly the monotypes, unique prints that we have made together with double signatures, are quite special”, Magne told the audience at the opening in Bodø Kunstforening.

“Some of these works were made in New York, some at my atelier in Asker, some at the Queen’s atelier at Mågerø, some in Helsingborg and some were made in Copenhagen.”

A gallery of pictures from the opening has been posted on Bodø Kunstforening’s Facebook page, along with two video clips of Magne speaking (Video 1 / Video 2).

Press reports from the opening include an article at bodonu.no and a short clip on NRK Nordland‘s local TV news.

The following day Magne made a visit to Kjerringøy near Bodø.

The final stop on the Texture exhibition tour is at Gulden Kunstverk in Steinberg, where it opens on 29 April.

———————

Sadly, this weekend also brought news that the poet Henning Kramer Dahl passed away on 7 March from heart failure, at the age of 54. He was part of a-ha’s inner circle and knew the band members from early on.

In 1986 Kramer Dahl wrote the book Så Blåser Det På Jorden together with Håkon Harket, which chronicled the beginnings of Bridges and a-ha in the late 70s and early 80s. He would later collaborate with Magne on a number of projects, including Blåtoneboulevardene (1997), Stjerneskutt (2004) and In Transit (2013).

He also co-wrote the song “East-Timor” for Morten’s Wild Seed album in 1995.

Magne, Håkon Harket, Lasse Kolsrud and Fredrik Skavlan have written an obituary about Kramer Dahl in Aftenposten. “We have lost a very special person, an important presence in our lives, and the world has lost a distinctive poetic voice and an extraordinary intellect”, they write in the obituary.

Magne interviewed in Krigsropet

Cover of Krigsropet, #9/2017

Magne is on the cover of this week’s issue of Krigsropet, which is the Salvation Army’s magazine in Norway. Inside there’s a 6-page interview with him about his Imprints sculpture park at Fornebu near Oslo, which opened in June last year.

(Update: The full interview is now also available online.)

The park is comprised of around 50 ceramic elements, including the world’s biggest jars, with many of them incorporating Magne’s own poetry.

“Using those poems is somewhat risky, as they are of a personal, private character. In my way of writing there’s an inherent melancholy. That’s the case with a-ha as well. We look at melancholy as a force, a longing, something that liberates you from something heavy”, Magne tells Krigsropet.

The interviewer mentions how people have pointed out that his writings are often influenced by religion and theology.

“Wondering and searching for meaning is closely related to faith. Shifting between doubt and faith is a necessary principle to embody a message. I have done a lot of reading and I use things from my own upbringing and culture. As a visual artist I visit the churches in every city I go to, to get inspiration. There isn’t much difference between sitting in an atelier or a chapel, transported away from all outside noise. In concentration I find silence. The church room opens the door to contemplation, it creates a room for thought. But I’m more into asking the right questions than finding the right answers. Faith and doubt is something you’re always thinking about”, Magne says.

From Krigsropet, #9/2017

The interview also mentions that new features have been added to the sculpture park in recent months, in the form of clouds of steam that suddenly appear, to make the sculptures appear as living and breathing entities.

“This isn’t a park that shows itself off, instead it’s hiding. Sometimes we have to walk around and search for things. It’s a journey of discovery, and I hope it triggers a sense of wonder.”

As always, Magne is busy with a variety of different projects. In January he spent a week in Denmark with HM Queen Sonja, continuing their collaborative work on graphic prints. Their joint exhibition Texture will continue its tour at Bodø Kunstforening in Bodø (9 March – 2 April) and Gulden Kunstverk in Steinberg (29 April – 21 May).

And this summer he will hold a solo exhibition at Galleri G Guddal in Rosendal (1 July – 20 August).

Magne presents new exhibition and art book with Queen Sonja

Magne and Queen Sonja in front of one of the prints they have made together

Magne and Queen Sonja in front of one of the prints they have made together

Magne was in Bergen last weekend, to present a joint exhibition with Her Majesty Queen Sonja. The two of them have been collaborating on a new series of prints over the last year and a half, which has resulted in an exhibition called Texture.

Their work on Texture started in New York in April 2015, when they did three days of experimenting at the Universal Limited Art Editions workshop on Long Island.

“The Queen and I met about thirteen years ago at one of my exhibitions”, Magne said in an interview with Scandinavian Traveler last month. “I found her curiosity inspiring. She is dedicated in ways I rarely see in others, with an elastic and inquisitive mind. It was her curiosity that formed the basis of our artistic relationship.”

“Her personality and dedication to printmaking has allowed me to relate to her as a colleague and not as a queen. When we collaborated on prints, there was never any need to establish a set of roles. At the same time she wanted me to give her honest feedback”, Magne told A-magasinet on Friday, which featured a 12-page article about the project.

As well as opening the exhibition, they could present a brand new coffe-table book about their artistic collaboration called Grafikkens vinger. The Norwegian edition of the book, which features text by Lars Saabye Christensen, can be ordered from bokkilden.no. The book will also be released internationally.

The Texture exhibition is on display at Grieghallen in Bergen until 3 September, and can later be seen in several other cities:

– Galleri Ismene, Trondheim (23 September–23 October 2016)
– The Paul Stolper Gallery, London (27 September–23 October 2016)
– Ålesund Kunstforening, Ålesund (5 November–4 December 2016)
– Bodø Kunstforening, Bodø (9 March–2 April 2017)
– Gulden Kunstverk, Steinberg (22 April–14 May 2017)

Video clips:
Working on Texture – official video
Vestlandsrevyen – from the opening in Bergen (starts at 8 minutes)

Articles:
NRK Hordaland     Bergens Tidende     Dagbladet
Aftenposten     Budstikka     Kongehuset.no     TV2/Kongebloggen
Paris Match     A-magasinet (subscribers only)

Magne at royal dinner

Magne was one of the guests at the Royal Palace in Oslo yesterday, as King Harald and Queen Sonja held an official dinner in honour of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, who are on a 3-day visit to Norway.

Aftenposten has a picture of Magne arriving here.

Magne meets the press in Helsingborg

Magne and fellow artists Kjell Nupen, Ørnulf Opdahl and Queen Sonja of Norway gave a large number of journalists a preview of the group exhibition Under stor press at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg, Sweden yesterday (see October 27th news update for more info about the exhibition).

Magne in conversation with Queen Sonja

Queen Sonja is exhibiting her art in public for the first time, and was really the center of attention.

“I think she’s got courage who has chosen to expose herself to the type of questions that are bound to come, when she sticks her neck out like this. I can definitely relate to that, being famous for one thing and then venturing into a completely different field”, Magne told Aftenposten’s web-TV.

He could be seen standing in front of 10 large prints from Futura Plus, covering an entire wall.

Today there’s a vernissage for invited guests, which will also be attended by King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Queen Silvia of Sweden, before the exhibition opens to the public tomorrow.

Under stor press will be open until August 5th next year.

 

Update: A few more interviews with Magne in Helsingborg have now appeared online. TV2 has a video report which can be seen here.

There is also an interview at Dagbladet.no.

Magne has become used to printing on hospital sheets, but with Futura Plus things turned a bit more graphic (as could be seen in the “Nasjonalgalleriet” documentary):

“This time I mistakenly received a bag full of unwashed hospital sheets, straight from the emergency room, that were badly stained, creased and smelt horrible. That felt like a starting point for a series of prints based on hospital situations”, Magne tells TV2.

“The prints are 200×80 centimeters. That’s the original size of these hospital sheets made by manufacturer Futura Plus – which inspired the name of my exhibition”, he told Dagbladet.

Magne visits New York and Los Angeles

New York, October 20th 
(Picture from naccusa.org)

Magne has been spending some time in the US recently. On October 20th he attended a gala luncheon at The Pierre Hotel in New York, held by The Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce, where Moods of Norway were presented with The Norwegian-American Trade Award. King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway were also present.

Moods of Norway, which has its own store in Los Angeles, has experienced success in the US and is planning another store in New York. Magne is currently on the board of directors of the clothing brand.

Some pictures of Magne with Simen Staalnacke and Stefan Dahlquist from Moods at the New York event can be seen at the NACC website here and here.

 
And on October 28th, Moods of Norway posted a picture on their Facebook page of Magne visiting the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Los Angeles together with Simen and Stefan.

Magne takes part in Helsingborg exhibition

"Futura Plus" monotype

Magne is one of the artists taking part in a group exhibition entitled “Under stor press” (“Under great pressure”), which opens at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg, Sweden on November 11th.

“Under stor press” presents around 800 graphic prints by 80 artists, all of whom have worked together with Atelje Larsen – Helsingborg’s own world-renowned print studio. Magne has used Atelje Larsen to create his graphic prints for many years.

The exhibition includes works from Magne’s recent “Futura Plus” project, which will be shown in public for the first time, as well as prints made by the members of Apparatjik.

When creating “Futura Plus”, Magne has said that he “painted on blood-stained sheets collected from hospital autopsy-rooms and similar”.

Magne will be in Helsingborg on November 9th together with fellow artists Kjell Nupen, Ørnulf Opdahl and Queen Sonja of Norway to give members of the press a special preview of the exhibition. There will also be a private vernissage on November 10th.

“Under stor press” will be on display until August 5th 2012.

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