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

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.

July 20.-26., 2020 my work is featured at Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York´s Instagram Spotlight

The featuring includes a weeklong sharing of my artwork on the @TSA_NY feed, culminating in a video interview, and I will take over of TSA´s Instagram Stories.
Check out: @tsa_ny

TSA is an artist-run exhibition space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, with locations in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Greenville, SC. Thank you for the sharing of my work, TSA team!

www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com

I did an with Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, where I talk about my work and processes and the times we currently live in.

https://open-source-gallery.org/artists-at-home-margrethe-aanestad/

ARTISTS AT HOME is an online interview series where artists are invited to talk about their various situations under the pandemic, and which I am fortunate to have been included in. I have been collaborating with Open Source Gallery several times, both as exhibiting artist and as co-curator/producer.

Photo: Jan Inge Haga

Merete Jonvik (NO) Ph. D., Social Anthropologist and Sociologist, has written an essay for CAS, about experiencing art, and in particular about her personal meeting with my works.

Fragile Etherality (English version)

In this essay, Merete Jonvik questions what occurs when a viewer encounters an artwork. What kind of emotions and thoughts are evoked by the work? She points out that an experience with an artwork can be considered as a conversation between the personal sensation engendered by the work and the established art discourse, and that this conversation necessarily depends on the legitimacy of the personal experience.

Norwegian: "Eg såg desse verka for første gong i «Aanestad-rommet» som var del av gruppeutstillinga Frail Mighty ved Stavanger Kunsthall i 2018. Eg kjende meg småsakral. Eg har ikkje sagt det til kunstnaren, eller til andre for den del, for eg visste ikkje kva eg skulle seia. Eg visste berre at eg ville vera i rommet så lenge som mogleg. Ha verka rundt meg. Eg ønskte det var ein sofa i rommet, ein stol eller ei seng, slik at eg kunne opphalda meg der, over tid, gjerne i avslappande positurar.” https://www.chttps://www.contemporaryartstavanger.no/skjor-og-deileg-lettheit/

Review on "Continuation and/or Duration" in Corridor8.uk, by Michael Porr

Review by Michael Orr / Corridor8.uk, on the duo exhibition with Elin Melberg and myself at Abingdon Studios Project Space, Blackpool, UK / Oct 2019: https://corridor8.co.uk/article/continuation-and-or-duration/

"Continuation and/or duration" / Upcoming at Abingdon Studios Project Space in Blackpool, UK / Opening Oct 24., 2019

Thursday Oct. 24. Elin Melberg and I are opening our duo exhibition at Abingdon Studios Project Space in Blackpool, UK. We are very happy for this collaboration with Garth Gratrix and the gallery.

Oct 1. - Nov. 17. , 2019: Solo presentation at MOCA London / Web_Exhibitions, curated by Roberto Ekholm / MOCA London

I am proud to announce the launch of my online show in the Web Exhibition series at MOCA London! Selected works from 2015-2019. Curated by Roberto Ekholm / MOCA London. / IG: @mocalondon_we

The Place, 2019

Vestkyst / Interface Gallery, Oakland, California, opening Feb 15., 2019

I am participating in this group show “Vestkyst”, produced in collaboration with Elin Melberg where we are showing works by Anders Sletvold Moe (NO) and Marit Roland (NO) in addition to our own works. Opening Feb 15.! Interface gallery, Oakland, CA.

MOCA London Web Exhibitions 2019

I will participate in this serie at MOCA London, UK, in October 2019 with selected works from 2015-2019. Curated by Roberto Ekholm.
httpoca.london/webexhibitions_margretheaanestad.html