KRISTIN ROMBERG
Through my paintings I can express the wonder and curiosity I feel for nature
and the world I live in. My work is an intuitive improvisation on nature. Via
relationships of colors, shapes and markings, through rhythm and balance, and the physical and psychological work of painting, each painting becomes a unique
expression. Using visual cues, I draw the viewer into a dynamic world that covers between the abstract and the representational.
I want to establish a room where the public can touch and lift my paintings.
My artistic project is to create a new tactile space where people can dream, escape, wonder, breathe, stop and feel. I work with paintings in large formats and treat break with the established concept of canvas on a stretcher. I try to evoke nature and give the audience the experience of moving in a dense forest or in a jungle. Hanging on the walls the layered compositions as if floating in the room the audience is encouraged to participate more physically. The installation encourages human connections in the face of each painting, but also in its entirety.
Those present must circulate and use the spaces between the canvases, so that each frame is slowly revealed. The gaze is continually drawn from a paint to the next and create a temporary development. The rear can be so interesting as the front.
My role as an artist in society is to create a timeless space for the viewer. Time for
reflection, wonder and feeling of being alive. I have no political agenda, but I hope my work gives people a touch of optimism for the future. I believe in my bright colors and expressive energy gives something positive back to those who see and experience my job.
Toxic soil
140x180cm
Acrylics on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
blue coming through
140x180cm
Acrylics on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
Beneath and below
140x180cm
Acrylic on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
childhood memo
140x180
Acrylics on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
My head is under water
140x180cm
Acrylics on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
Vision for the future
135x180cm
Acrylics on unprimed cotton canvas 380g
Kristin in her studio
WHO, WHAT, WHY?
1. Can you tell us about yourself, who you are, where you're from, and other information you'd like to share?
I am a Norwegian visual artist who practices from individual two-dimensional works such as painting and drawing, to on-site work and performances. Painting is my main area. I have a degree from Art Academy in Sydney, Australia, from Einar Granum College of Art and Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo, Norway. I have exhibited all over Norway and also in Sydney, Riga, San Francisco, New York, Barcelona and Denmark. For the next year I will be exhibiting in Norway and at the Makarere Art Gallery in Kampala, Uganda. I have been awarded several scholarships and many public institutions buy my works. I have a nice studio in my hometown, Fredrikstad, in the southeast of Norway, and I share the studio with 12 other professional artists.
I just turned 50 and my three daughters have moved away this year, leaving me plenty of time for my art. I am married to a very patient man whom I love very much. In our free time, we go skiing in the winter and hiking and windsurfing in the summer. Being outdoors is very important to me and I always transmit it in my art.
2. How did you come to art and find your style?
I have been working with abstract expressionism since 2013. Before that I worked with figurative art, especially women and the theme of identity. The turning point was when I was invited to paint a 20-meter painting together with two artists from Oslo. We painted an abstract painting and I have stuck to it ever since.
I have an ongoing project together with another Norwegian artist. This project has taken me further in my paintings. Every day, each of us makes a small painting in a certain format and on a special paper. Regardless of where we are or what we do, we make the little picture. Then we take a picture of it and post it on a blog and on Instagram. Today is day number 2832 (8 years coming soon). It's like a visual diary and I can see that the things I do in this small format show up later in my larger frames. Here is a link to our blog: https://365rombergtronstad.wordpress.com and my Instagram for this project is: Kristin_jensen_romberg
3. How do you get inspired?
I am inspired by abstract expressionism (New York school) and especially Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner for the bravery of their time.
When I first started showing my paintings on stretchers, just hanging loosely in a room, I took inspiration from Sam Gilliam and Vivian Suter. They gave me courage to follow this path, but my main inspiration comes from within. I have a driving force within me.
Through my paintings I can express the wonder and curiosity I feel for nature and the world I live in. My work is an intuitive improvisation on nature and on the impressions of my walks in the woods, my walks in the mountains and my hours on the windsurf board. Through a process of psychological realism, the visual elements are restructured into a landscape abstraction. Through the relationship of colors, shapes and marks, through rhythm and balance, and the physical and psychological work of painting, each painting becomes a unique expression. Using visual cues, I draw the viewer into an imagined landscape, a colorful and dynamic world that hovers between the abstract and the representational.
With the "Belong" project, I want to establish a room where the public can touch, feel and lift my paintings. My artistic project is to create a new tactile space where people can dream, escape, wonder, breathe, feel, stop and feel. I work with paintings in large formats and I try to break with the established concept of canvases in stretchers. In the exhibitions, I try to evoke nature and give the public the experience of moving through a dense forest, a virgin forest or a jungle.
I walk a lot, both in the forest and in the mountains and I have discovered that if I go out for a walk where thousands of tourists have walked before me, the tree I am leaning on or holding on to is completely slippery and worn. I feel the traces of all those who were before me. This also happens when several people have touched my paintings. They wear out and clues are obtained, and clues are part of the job. By hanging the layered compositions on the walls as if floating in the room, the audience is encouraged to participate more physically. The works form a changing landscape and the installation encourages human connections in the face of each painting, but also in its entirety. Those present must circulate and take advantage of the spaces between the canvases, so that each painting is slowly revealed. The gaze continually moves from one painting to the next and creates a temporal development. The back can be just as interesting as the front.
I travel a lot and my paintings are often related to this. They are non-verbal communications between my memories of a different part of the world, different environments and landscapes, to my current environment, connections and dependencies. Since the beginning of Covid-19 I have been traveling around Norway. The trips between memory and reality have left deep impressions and allow me to see things differently. The moods and feelings that my paintings provoke are much more important to me than the references to natural landscapes.
4. Anything else you want to share with people interested in your work?
My role as an artist in society is to create a timeless space for the viewer. Time for reflection, wonder and the feeling of being alive. I don't have a political agenda, but I hope that my work gives people a touch of optimism for the future. I believe that my bright colors and expressive energy give something positive back to those who see and experience my work.
Like everyone else, I have a dream. My dream is to travel the world with my art. I want to make art in all kinds of countries and societies and exhibit my paintings where I create them, and in galleries. I want to invite people into my world, share it with them.
EXHIBITIONS ONLY
2022 Makarere Contemporary Art Gallery, Kampala, Uganda
2021 Fredrikstad Art Association
2021 Gallery Røed Jeløy, Norway
2020 Kvartetten visningsrom, Apart Par med Per Jonas Lindström
2019 Gallery Røed Jeløy, Norway There and Then Here and Now
2018 Råde Art Association, gallery old Tomb, Norway The one who sees it 2018 Eidsberg Art Association, Norway Silence – let it talk by itself.
2017 Østfold Art Center, Fredrikstad, Norway The power of going up 2016 Hydrogenfabrikken Arthall, Fredrikstad, Norway Reverberation 2016 Galleri Nord, T romsø, Norway , About Time
2015 Ullensaker Art Association, Norway Free to fly - put on your wings 2015 Rygge Art Association, Norway, Bottomless and Sky high
2015 Ullensaker Art Association, Jessheim, Norway Homecoming 2014 Motorfabrikken, Fredrikstad, Norway The World is my garden 2014 Gallery Vulkan, Oslo, Norway, Pura Vida
2013 Gallery Vulkan, Oslo, Norway, Mad Men
2012 Museums of Akershus, Stein school museum, Norway, Fairytales
2012 Østfold Art Center, Fredrikstad, Norway A Moment Lost
2011 Gallery One T wentyEight, New Y ork, US A Real Fantasy - Dreamt Reality 2011 Hole Artcenter, Oslo, Norway Invisible Truth
2010 Motorfabrikken, Fredrikstad, Norway Glorious Absence
2010 La Galleria, Barcelona, SPAIN Glorious Absence
2010 Nordic Cultural Center, Riga, LAT VI A East Of The Sun - W est Of The Moon 2010 Gallery Carousell, Riga, LAT VI A East Of The Sun - W est Of The Moon
2010 Gallery Britannia, Fredrikstad, Norway Nothing lasts
2009 Gallery Elenor, Oslo, Norway Without beginning, without end
2007 Gallery G, Arendal, Norway Finding Neverland
2007 Gallery Nedgården, Hvaler, Norway Finding Neverland
2007 Gallery Graphique, Norway Between Remembering and Forgetting
2006 TAP Gallery, Sydney, AUSTRALIA A Hide and seek
2006 Gallery Carousell, Riga, LAT VI A Nothing is a coincidence
2005 Gallery Clara, Norway High above
2004 Ullensaker Art Association, Norway Wild bird
2004 Clodion Art Café, Oslo, Norway Paintings and Drawings
2003 Gallery Stallen, Old Fredrikstad, Norway
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2021 Fluffy Crimes, #4, Chicago, USA
2019 KUTT UT! – prosessbasert tresnitt, Østfold Kunstsenter
2019 Østfold bildende kunstnere, Old Town Fredrikstad, Norway I chose April 2018 Hydrogenfabrikken Fredrikstad, Norway Multiple Helium
2018 Fredrikstad Art Association, Norway KU TTUT
2017 Leknes Cultureal house,
2017 Østlandsutstillingen
2017 Gallery Soon, Son, Norway
2015 Larvik Art Association, Norway
2014 Kunst Fredrikstad 2014, Fredrikstad Norway
2014 Østlandsutstillingen Kiel, GERM AN Y Kieler Frieden 2013 Fridge Art Fair Miami, US A
2013 Fashion week Festival artist, Oslo, Norway
2013 Gallery Walaker, Sogn, Norway
2011 Gallery Ceres, Chelsea, Manhattan, New York, USA
2011 Art North Center, Sæby, DENMARK
2010 Hole Artcenter, Norway Summer exhibition
2010 Limfjordmuseet, Denmark Nothing has changed
2009 Hole Artcenter/Galleri Elenor, Oslo, Norway, 50/50!
2009 San Francisco, USA Norwegian Instant Art
08- Østfold Art Center, Fredrikstad, Norway Summer exhibition 2008 Art Fair Nittedal, Norway
09/07 Fredrikstad, Norway Art in the streets, outdoor arrangement 2004 Moss Art Association, Norway
2003 Gallery NK, Lillehammer, Norway
Art Performance
2016 UnspokenDialog. Collaboration project with dancer Henriette Slorer 2013 Encounter , film with Henriette Slorer Jacobsen
2009 PS!- Viral Art, Barcelona, SP AIN
2006 Dance with me, Paddington, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Education:
2018-20 Oslo MET, PPUY
2013-14 Oslo Art Academy, KHIO, Art history BA
2012 NGV - Norwegian Printmakers Studio, Leong Va
2006 Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, BA fine Arts, AUSTRALIA 1991-93 Westerdals School of Communication, AD, Oslo Norway
1990-91 School of Graphic Design, Oslo, Norway
1989-91 Einar Granum College of Art, Oslo, Norway
2007-09 Student at Markus Brendmoe´s studio, Oslo, Norway
Artist-in-Residence:
2018 Artist in Residence, Niiad, Uganda, AFRICA
2016 Artist in Residence, Kunstkvarteret, Lofoten, Norway 2015 Artist in Residence, Palazzo Stabile, IT AL Y
2014 Artist in Residence, Costa Rica, CEN TR AL AMERICA 2009 NIA, Norwegian Instant Art, San Francisco, USA
2009 Artist in Residence Can Serrat, Barcelona, SPAIN (Oct) 2009 Artist in Residence Can Serrat, Barcelona, SPAIN (May)
Lofoten, Norway Dair Y
Art in Public Spaces/Collections:
Fredrikstad Municipality, 8 work to their collection House of Health, 2 work, Kråkerøy, Norway Rødsmyra Primaryschool, Kråkerøy, Norway Kråkeby Kindergarden, Kråkerøy, Norway Siemens, 2 work, Oslo, Norway
House of Riga, Latvia, RIGA
Kynningsrud AS Norway
AF Gruppen AS, Norway
Kjøkkenkompaniet AS, Norway
Memberships:
LNM (Norwegian Art Council for painters)
NBK (Norwegian Art Council),
ØBK (Østfold Art Council 2009-, leader of the boarder 2011-2017)
Other: 2018- 2016- 2015 2015 2011- 2011 2009-15 2008-09 2009-11 2004 1993-01
Leader of Boarder Østlandsutstillingen Leader of Boarder Sirius Hydrogenfabrikken
Project room Helium, Hydrogenfabrikken with dancer Henriette Slorer Curator RAKE gallery, Trondheim, Norway
Teacher DKS, Punkt Ø and National Gallery
Teacher DKS, Punkt Ø, Momentum Biennale
Boarder of ØBK (Østfold Art Assosiation) Leader (2011-15)
Jury-member UKM (Youth Art Performance)
Project, Founding HYDROGENFABRIKKEN
Blue image 2004 - price, Moss Art association,
Art Director and Illustrator for several magazines, papers and companies in Norway
Grants/Sponsors:
2021 Sparebankstiftelsen project founded with Hege Liseth 2020 Fredrikstad Municipality project grant
2020. Vederlagsfondet grant
2020. Exhibition grant (KIN)
2020 Sparebankstiftelsen projectfound with Hege Liseth
2018 Østfold Fylkeskommune Grant of Travel
2014 Artist Growth Grant, Hydrogenfabrikken with dancer Henriette Slorer 2014 Reaktor, Hydrogenfabrikken, workgrant with dancer Henriette Slorer
2013 DanceArt in Østfold grant with dancer Henriette Slorer
2010 The Norwegian Embassy in Madrid, SPAIN
2010 The Norwegian Embassy in Riga, LAT VI A
2009 The Norwegian Embassy in San Francisco USA
2009 Artist in Residence Grant at Can Serrat, Barcelona, SPAIN
2009 NorwayHouse Foundation, San Francisco, USA
2009 Norwegian American Cultural Foundation, San Francisco, USA
2009 Norwegian Consulate in San Franscisco, USA
2009 Norwegian Seamen's Church in San Franscisco, USA
2009 Private grant from h & h Partners, San Franscisco, USA
2009 Private grant from: Abb, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Moods of Norway,
Kunst for Alle, Finse 1222, Ferner Jacobsen, Shoelounge, Great vibes, Jensen&Scheele bil as, Norway
ORGANIC
Norwegian visual artist Kristin Romberg (b. 1970) has been working with large format paintings since 2001. He was educated at Sydney University of Fine Arts, Westerdal School of Advertising, Einar Granum School of Art and has had numerous exhibitions in Norway and abroad. In the last two years, he has moved towards installation art with his paintings as they are freely mounted layer upon layer in the room. His juicy and colorful works create a new dimension and Romberg wants to establish a new tactile space where people can dream, escape, wonder, breathe, stop and feel. Kristin tries to break with the established concept of canvas on stretchers and with the help of visual layers, Romberg wants to draw the viewer into a colorful and dynamic world that hovers between the subtle and the representational. The paintings are abstract and have clear references to nature and seek to give the experience of moving in a dense and primitive jungle.
Romberg is inspired by abstract expressionism (New York School), and when he paints it is like a performance in that he moves in and around the painting. "When I paint, it is like a ritual dance where each stroke and each gesture is directly rooted in what I have experienced. It is an inner force that drives me to create exactly what I do. I am present, experiencing, feeling and assimilating and then it is projected on the screen ".
The artist is constantly working on new paintings for her projects and often travels and works in other places. She is interested in how lines and color choice change depending on her geographical location. Some paintings are heavy on paint, while others are light and simple in both composition and execution. When they are to be mounted for display, they are all equally important. Together they create a whole like a large floating collage.
