Oslo Kunstforening is proud of the collaboration with Sparebankstiftelsen DNB on this annual exhibition, which is much more than a competition for a grant. The grant exhibition has developed into an important platform for introducing exciting artistic practices, both established and emerging, to a wider public.
This year’s three exhibitors represent different practices and work in different expressions that range from textiles to video, performance and sculpture, but the jury still sees several overlapping orientations and fields of interest.
Jury leader, visual artist Elise Storsveen says:
“Common concerns of the three artists are questions related to origin, ecology and storytelling, and how traditional knowledge and craftsmanship can be read in a contemporary context. The jury has great faith that this year’s exhibition will also both challenge us as viewers and broaden our perspectives.”
Anders Bjørnsen, head of Art and Culture at Sparebankstiftelsen, says about the collaboration with Oslo Kunstforening on the prize exhibition:
“Sparebankstiftelsen DNB is proud to collaborate with Norway’s first art institution, and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB’s Grant Exhibition has gradually built up to become one of Norway’s most important and prestigious scholarships. We see it as important to support this exhibition and the works of art that are presented”.
About the artists
Damien Ajavon was born in 1990 in Paris and is of Senegalese and Togolese origin, living in Oslo. Ajavon graduated from the textile department at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2023, and as a queer Afropean they are concerned with the relationship between different craft traditions. Ajavon uses the intersection of their African and Western backgrounds as a tool for storytelling and exploration.
Kåre Aleksander Grundvåg was born in 1984 in Tromsø, where he lives and works. Grundvåg is educated from the Academy of Arts in Tromsø and is currently a PhD candidate in artistic research at UMAK, Tromsø and KMD, Bergen. Through various sculptural techniques and process-based projects, Grundvåg explores a non-human architecture. Material experimentation, bio-mimetics and traditional knowledge are included as elements in the practice, with the coastal landscape of Northern Norway as a frame of reference.
Linda Lamignan was born in 1988 in Stavanger and lives and works in Copenhagen. Lamignan is educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In performance, objects, video and music, Lamignan examines, among other, how the experience of floating between different worlds is connected with diaspora, landscapes and cultural conditions related to West Africa and Scandinavia.
Nomination
The jury members nominate three artists each who are invited to submit a portfolio. The only fixed criterion is that the artists must have an affiliation with Norway, either in the form of residence or that the person in question is a Norwegian citizen. Out of a total of fifteen artists, three are selected to participate in the grant exhibition. The recipient of the grant of NOK 200,000 will be announced at a separate event during the exhibition period.
