CV GRO FOLKAN – born 15.08.49

GRO FOLKAN – born 15.08.49

CURRICULUM VITAE

SOLO  EXHIBITIONS

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2014 Gallery Vanntårnet, Nesodden – by Oslo

2011 Gallery Brevik, Tromsoe

2010 Gallery Sult ,Stavanger

2010 Gallery Tonne ,Oslo

2008 Gallery Brevik,Tromsoe

2006 Gallery Brevik,Tromsoe

2001 Gallery Embla, Tromsoe

2001 Gallery Albin Upp, Oslo

2001 Tromsoe Museum

1993 Tromsoe Kunstforening,Tromsoe

1990 Hammerlunds Kunsthandel, Oslo

1987 Gallery Cassandra, Drøbak

1985 Tromsoe Kunstforening, Tromsoe

1984 Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo

1983 Tromsoe Kunstforening

1982 Gallery Tanum, Oslo

1979 Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

1977 Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

1977 Gallery 71, Tromsoe

1975 Bergen Kunstforening, Bergen

1973 Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

1971 Kunstnerforbundet, (Artists´ Association) Oslo

1967 Club 7, Oslo

PUBLIC PURCHASES

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Norwegian National Gallery

Norwegian State Gallery

Norwegian Culture Council

Central Bank of Norway

Oslo Public Schools Art Collection

Oslo City Art Collection

University of  Tromsoe

North Norway Art Museum

Norwegian Contemporary Art Museum

County of Troms

University hospital of North-Norway

EDUCATION

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1967-69 Norwegian Central Art School, painting and grafics

1969 73 Art Academy of Norway,          painting and grafics

JOINT EXHIBITION

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1967  Debut Statens Høstutstilling(Norwegian State Autumn Exhibition)

          (Participated eight times since)

1967  Debutants from Norwegian State Exhibition, Oslo Kunstforening

1968  The June Exhibition, Kunstnerforbundet,(ArtistsÁssociation) Oslo

1968  Nordic Exhibition, Hässelby castle, Stockholm, Sweden

1969  UKS Spring Exhibition, participated 4 times since

1972  Liljevalks Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

1974  ”Norwegian Grafics today” Travelling exhibition, Germany two years

1975  ”Norwegian today”, Hässelby castle, Stocholm, Sweden

1976  Female artists, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

1977  Gallery F 15, Moss

1980  Fredrikstad Kunstforening

1990  Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsoe

1995  Norwegian Pictures 95, Brandstrup, Oslo City Hall

1996  Norwegian Pictures 96, Brandstrup, Oslo City Hall

2000  North Norwegian contemporary art , travelling exhibition

2014  Summer Expo, Gallery Vulkan, Oslo

AWARDS

1976  First prize, school decoration, Oslo city

PUBLIC ASSIGNMENTS

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1975  ”Park 62” (artist group) Rehabilitation of Asker city center

1975  Scenography, Høvikodden ballet, Oslo

1975  ”Park 62” exhibition, ”Can Tøyen Public Baths become everyman´s garden of

           Eden?  City of Oslo Information Center and the Munch museum

1977  ”Conditions of life” Rehabilition of Rodeløkka, in Oslo, exhibition

            Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

PUBLIC DECORATIONS

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1978  Rommen school, Oslo

1983  Grindbakken school,Oslo

1985  Sparebank Nord, Tromsoe

1985  Telecom Bilding, Finnsnes

1988  Porsangermoen, army camp, Lakselv, North Norway

1989  Kroken nursing home, Tromsoe

1998  Saga Petroleum, supply ship, Oslo

STIPENDS

1968  ”The three percent” working stipend

1969  General Consul Røwde´s memorial stipend

1973  City of Bærum working stipend

1975  State of Norway, 3 year working stipend

1982  County of Troms, working stipend

1986  Lorch Shive´s working stipend

1995  Project support, Oslo

1996  County of Troms, project support

THE IMAGES BETWEEN

Our culture is to a marked degree defined in literary categories, words, numbers. Everything has a name. But that is not the reality. Reality is coherent, and also includes that which is between the categories, between the named objects. To explore that which is between – with my method- is my project.

Reality may be comprehended as a language addressing us. The elements of this language,”the words” are other than our everyday words, and include also what is between the words, between the categories, our categories. What is a tree ? The stem, of course, the branches, twigs and leaves, the roots- but what about the life-supporting fungi and microbes between the finest roothairs? What about the oxygen close to the leaves? What about the bird´s nest? What about the bird´s song early in the morning when the sun rises and the rays stroke the top of the tree? What about the shadow below?

Many of us remember the famous Haiku poem about the flower falling from a branch of a tree, and suddenly rising again, going upwards. Is it a butterfly? Pulled into the moment between the flower and the butterfly, we suddenly get access to a part of reality we did not know before.  Look at a landscape, or a field with straws. Consider the wealth of significance and content between the named categories.

I think of my pictures as gates, entrances to the language between. I have experienced that when I manage to be in these gates, a new state of mind arises, a new contact – because I also am nature. And then it can happen that a wild bird sits down by me , or a raven comes down and says something.

My pictures are gates, instruments.The real pictures ,the images are not the pictures on my canvases, but the images coming into being in the mind of the onlooker.

I often use oxidized metals to add colour and substance and to facilitate the layer underneath to shine through. I use gold, white, red, green gold, silver, brass, copper, aluminium, paladium, platinum. I also use interference colours when suitable. The colours change from red to green etc. when the observer moves relative to the picture. Interference colours suit the metals very well. Some of these effects are difficult to display in digital media.

I have spent a lot of time travelling and learning , being in other settings, in New York, Southwest, The Four Corners, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Berlin, Japan, China, and have sought out expressive , unspoiled Nature, particularly in North Norway.

To accomplish what I am trying to, I must create ”air” between the layers of my paintings, there must be space and breath between them.  I have worked many years to develop a technique allowing this, to try to create a weightlessnes as in the Haiku poem mentioned above, disturbing our set categories, opening the gates.