Exhibition: The Comic Style

The collector Tor Juul is sharing his refreshing comic-styled art collection at the Daydreams and Nightmares exhibition @ Stenersenmuseet in Oslo. The exhibition comes out as a refreshing breath in the landscape of galleries.

The personal preferences that dominate the collection make for a varied and consistent exhibition that should be accessible for most people. In an interview on norwegian radio Juul describes his taste for art with a "punch" to it. Now, if only more collectors followed their own passion and also shared their collections with others as Juul does! (Drawing above by Bjarne Melgaard. Left photo by Erik Snedsbøl.)

One of the more interesting pictures is a nonfigurative painting by Katrine Giæver from 2001. The photo on this page doesn't do justice to the delicate surface of the original work. The smooth surface and the thick overlapping layers of paint in combination with a well-selected composition of colours makes for a piece that makes you stand perplexed. In short, go see the real 3D version. Paintings aren't flat!

Can superheros be art? If they stand out like Eivind Blaker's Good vs Evil #1 one can hardly deny them space on gallery walls. In this case Blaker has given the flat character depth by precise painting on multiple levels of boards offset from each other, thus allowing his character to pop out from the two dimensions of comic-land and push itself into our three dimensions. A fun piece that helps break up the exhibition into something light and enjoyable.