Please join us for an artist and curator discussion as part of the opening programs for A Time for Everything: 25 Years of Contemporary Art at Scandinavia House. Norwegian artists Margrethe Aanestad, Ole Brodersen, and Simen Johan join curator and art historian Karin Hellandsjø, and the exhibition’s curator Emily Stoddart, to discuss the artists and artwork featured in the current exhibition, share their own experiences working, exhibiting — and, in some cases, living — in New York, and reflect on the current relationship between New York and the Nordic region’s artist community-at-large.

Note: registration link applies to both the 2 PM talk and 3 PM talk; either may be attended upon registration. Attendees of the afternoon talks are also invited to special Open House Party from 4-6 PM. 

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ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

SIMEN JOHAN

Simen Johan has exhibited widely across the globe, including at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway; Ciurlionis National Art Museum, Lithuania; Center for Photography, Ykatinburg, Russia; The American Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan and Space Z, Beijing, China. Johan’s work is held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Cleveland Art Museum, OH; Museum of Fine Art Houston, TX; Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; and the Denver Art Museum, CO, among others. The artist is the recipient of the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Grant for Photography, Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant, MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Five monographs have been published on his work, including titles from Rizzoli, Twin Palms, and Powerhouse Books. Simen Johan was born in Norway in 1973, raised in Sweden and has resided in New York City since 1992.

KARIN HELLANDSJØ

Karin Hellandsjø (b. 1944), art historian, PhD, from the University of Oslo. She worked as curator at the Henie Onstad Art Centre for almost two decades, during the 1970’s and 80’s, before joining the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo as their chief curator and head of the museum department from 1988 till 2005. In March 2005 she came back to the Henie Onstad Art Centre as director. She retired in 2011 and is now working as independent scholar and art consultant.
Hellandsjø has since the start of her career been involved in national and international museum work and collaboration, and has curated many major exhibitions throughout the years. She is also a notable scholar on modern art, a lecturer and an active writer. Hellandsjø is appointed Knight, 1st class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of St.Olav and Officier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, de la Republique Francaise.

OLE BRODERSEN

Ole Brodersen (b. 1981) lives and works, as the 12th generation of his family, in Lyngør, a car-free island community on the southern coast of Norway. He works with analog large-format photography, focusing on the interplay between natural forces, cultural heritage, and changing communities. Trained as an Art Director he has also worked as assistant to Dag Alveng. He debuted in 2009 with photographs from an Atlantic circumnavigation in an 1894 pilot cutter. His work has been acquired by the National Museum of Photography (Norway) and exhibited in Norway and internationally, including in New York, London, Venice, Paris, and Boston. He recently published his first book Imagine a Place.

MARGRETHE AANESTAD

Margrethe Aanestad (1974) was born in Stavanger on the South West Coast of Norway. Since 2012 she has been living and working between Stavanger, Norway and New York City. Aanestad studied fine arts at the Rogaland Art College, Norway and holds a BA in Art & Cultural studies from the University of Stavanger. Aanestad has shown internationally, primarily in the USA, as well as in Europe. Previous solo exhibitions include Utstein Monastery (Stavanger Museum), Norway; Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway; Torrance Shipman, NYC; Dimensions Variable, Miami; Open Source Gallery, NYC. Selected duo- and group shows include Sandefjord kunstforening, Norway; Scandinavia House, NYC; Dimensions Variable, Miami; Yi Gallery, NYC; Tiger Strikes Asteroid, NYC; Interface gallery, Oakland; Abingdon Studios, UK; Another Space, Copenhagen. Aanestad has also participated in several group and duo shows in New York City, Miami, Oakland, Costa Rica, Copenhagen and the UK, in addition to multiple art institutions in her native Norway. Residencies include Residency Unlimited, NYC and Artists Alliance Inc., NYC.

EMILY STODDART

Emily Stoddart is a Canadian artist, curator, and cultural producer, with over 18 years of experience in the professional visual arts field. Currently, she is the manager of exhibitions and community programs at Scandinavia House, New York, where she organizes, curates, and produces exhibitions and related visual culture programming, with a focus on the Nordic region. Emily has organized large international exhibitions in partnership with Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery; Munchmuseet, Oslo; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of the Faroe Islands, KODE Bergen Art Museum; as well as various independent curators, artist-run spaces, universities, and gallerists in the Nordic region. Emily has curated and produced exhibitions and public programming in conjunction with the Armory Fair (NY); Feature Art Fair (Toronto), Frieze New York, NY Textile Month, as well as with galleries, cultural spaces, and artist-run centers in New York City, Canada, the Nordic and the Baltic regions.

Photo Credits:

Ole Brodersen headshot: Sverre Aurstad
Margrethe Aanestad headshot: Ben Goldstein
Karin Hellandsjø headshot: Øystein Thorvaldsen