Exceptional in scale, FORCES - Dyrdal Kvasbø Tingleff presents a wide selection of works dating from the 2000s to the present day, created by three internationally renowned Norwegian artists: Kari Dyrdal, Torbjørn Kvasbø and Marit Tingleff.

I am very proud to be the co-curator for the for the exhibition FORCES along with Anne Britt Ylvisåker, KODE and Frank Falch, SKMU!

With their curiosity, courage and determination to test materials, technology and work methods, the artists Kari Dyrdal, Torbjørn Kvasbø and Marit Tingleff have transformed their disciplines into something new and different. This summer, KODE presents a major exhibition of their work.

In the mid-1970s, the textile artist Kari Dyrdal and the ceramicists Torbjørn Kvasbø and Marit Tingleff all began their studies at the National College of Art and Design in Bergen. It was a time when the crafts field was experiencing perhaps the most profound upheaval since the early years of the 20th century – both inside and outside Norway. Old ideals of form and function were being swept aside by innovative approaches to materials and free artistic expression. It was a period that didn’t pass quietly in Bergen.

Forty years later, Dyrdal, Kvasbø and Tingleff are still deeply committed to the materials they chose back then. All three work in large formats at the limits of physical possibility, yet they differ in their strategies for reaching that point: Dyrdal has replaced the loom with a computer, using her practical experience to explore digital textiles. Kvasbø fires his huge tubular sculptures in self-built, wood-fired kilns. Tingleff blurs the boundary between plates and painting in clayware that explores familiar forms on an unfamiliar scale.

Foto: Dag Fosse