 (b. 1987) is a photographer and print-maker living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Through montages of photographs of people, places, things and abstract pictures, his work revolves as much around mirroring his passage through life, as it does around the open interpretation of the meaning of images. That is, through new associations between them. After receiving his MFA from HDK-Valand in Gothenburg, Gustafsson’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues such as Galleri Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm (2022), MELK Galleri, Oslo (2022), Lundgren Gallery, Palma (2022), Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2021) and at the Mariatorget subway station in Stockholm (2022). He has released three books; 

 (self-published, 2022) and most recently, A House of Clay (Loose Joints, 2024).

Swedish artist Erik Gustafsson works with analog photography and returns to the photograph's intrinsic elements such as representation, reproduction and the possibilities of experiencing time and space on a flat surface.

His work process often involves cycles of photographing, printing, failing, dodging rules, repeating and scanning. As traces of the process are layered on top of each other, the resulting pictures can be seen as metaphors for memories, or simply as demonstrations of the potential for change that lies in the act of reproduction.

The analog darkroom plays a central part in Gustafsson’s work as it both functions as an extension of the camera and of the mind. Within that space it's important for him to find the balance between doing as much as he can and at the same time knowing when to let go of control.

Alongside Gustafsson’s spontaneous daily-life snapshots, are abstract pictures made without the use of a camera. His ongoing series of Luminograms are original imprints created by rays of light, exposed directly onto light-sensitive paper in the darkroom. The Luminogram process is about as fundamental as photography gets; as such the works raise questions about the nature of the photograph and how it can be made through various techniques and processes.

Erik Gustafsson

Erik Gustafsson (b. 1987) is a photographer and print-maker living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Through montages of photographs of people, places, things and abstract pictures, his work revolves as much around mirroring his passage through life, as it does around the open interpretation of the meaning of images. That is, through new associations between them. After receiving his MFA from HDK-Valand in Gothenburg, Gustafsson’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues such as Galleri Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm (2022), MELK Galleri, Oslo (2022), Lundgren Gallery, Palma (2022), Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2021). He has previously published two books; 

 (Heavy Books, 2020). Soon he will release his third book A House of Clay, published by Loose Joints (2024).

Gustafsson places his conceptual and contextual photographic process in dialogue with a simple premise, a truism of photography: to elevate the everyday, to find meaning and take seriously the smallest of occurrences in ordinary life, and to invoke a sense of gratitude and wonder toward consciousness, sensing and feeling. Sometimes excessively normal, elsewhere tender and intimate, later dense and complex, Gustafsson’s warm slices of life are digested in the darkroom, where the technical processes of photography fall in on themselves, becoming embedded in the image: collapsing the space between process and final product.

Balancing consciousness and coincidence, Gustafsson’s moments of magical realism speak of a permanence, a perpetual present, where the continually unfinished image can always be, at a later stage, altered, manipulated and reshaped. Gustafsson’s work is a structure that is built to collapse and resurrect again and again in new ways.

– Lewis Chaplin, Loose Joints. A House of Clay is published by Loose Joints, February 2024, with two essays by Elisa Medde and Louis Nitze.

We are proud to present Erik Gustafsson’s third solo exhibition at MELK titled A House of Clay, where the birdsong of everyday life interacts with cycles of darkroom creation and destruction.

A House of Clay

Frido Evers

Frido Evers (b. 1980) has a bachelor's degree from the Academy for Art and Design, ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NL), and he received a master’s degree at Kustakademiet in Oslo. He lives and works in Bærum (NO).

Frido Evers explores layers in search of moments of stillness and presence. Layers of meaning and layers of material have been emerging as a mode of operating in the last decade of his practice. This is maybe most visible in his collages, where several pictures printed on acrylic glass and other materials are overlain, and all kinds of settlements to the composition are added to that. The same technique is found in his installations as well.Atmospheric scenes of decaying industrial and human dreams, strange science fiction-oriented universes, and architectural dystopia tend to be the direction of the results of this process.

He has been represented by Galleri Maria Veie (NO) and later by CINNNAMON in Rotterdam (NL). He has, among other places, shown works in Galleri Kösk (NO), Bærum Kunsthall (NO), Noplace (NO), Brenau University (US), Blomquist (NO), Zürcher Gallery (NY), Flipbook Gallery (AU), Örebro Kunsthal (SE), De Fabriek (NL), and Raid Projects (LA). He has been shown at several art fairs around the world, such as Art Basel Hong Kong (HK), Art Rotterdam (NL), Art Amsterdam (NL), and Pulse Art Fair (NY).

In the lazy embrace of the night sky, a subtle phenomenon known as "ashen light" has stirred curiosity for centuries. This ethereal glow, reported on the night side of the planet Venus, offers a charming contrast to its namesake, a celestial body named after a goddess of love and beauty. Yet, beneath the veneer of Venus' entrancing cloud cover lies a harsh world of searing temperatures and inhospitable conditions. Amidst this dissonance, a tantalizing suggestive gleam touches the slumbering side of the planet.

For generations, observers have been captivated by tales of ashen light, dating back to the 17th century. However, despite numerous accounts, this spectral radiance has eluded confirmation through rigorous scientific instruments or precise measurements. Frustratingly elusive, it resists clear observation and photography, shrouded in its faint and changeable nature. Recent glimpses captured by spacecraft, including the Parker Solar Probe, have hinted at features on Venus's dark side that could be linked to ashen light. Yet, these tantalizing hints remain inconclusive, preserving the enigma that challenges our comprehension of Venus and its turbulent atmosphere.

The concept of perceiving something while lacking evidence to establish its existence is a riddle that transcends far beyond the boundaries of this celestial phenomenon. It serves as an open invitation to delve into the intricacies of human perception, beckoning us to explore the metaphorical and symbolic dimensions of this elusive radiance—what we see but cannot perceive clearly.

_DSC1659-Edit web.jpg

_DSC1662-Edit web.jpg

We are excited to announce the opening of Frido Ever's first solo exhibition at MELK on June 21st. We hope to see you at Hallings gate 5 from 18.00-21.00 this Friday for the final show before the summer break.

Ashen

(b. 1979, Norway) lives and works in Oslo. She holds a BA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Institute for color) and Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. She undertook an independent project in artistic research for 6 months at the Akademin Valand, School of Photography in Gothenburg.
Eggen has exhibited at venues such as Henie Onstad Art Center, Haugar Vestfold Artmuseum, Lillehammer Art Museum, Kunstnerforbundet, gallery 1857, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City and Ulterior Gallery, New York.
Recent solo exhibitions include the FUTURE FAIR 2022 at Chelsea Industrial, New York, TRUST - f/stop - 9. Festival fur Fotografie Leipzig (2021), galleri MELK (2021), Oslo Negativ (2021), Galleri Noplace, Oslo (2020), Fotografihuset, Sukkerbiten (2020) and Sandefjord kunstforening (2020). Her work is in several private and public collections such as The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, The National Museum in Oslo, The Henie Onstad art collection, Equinor Art Programme and Oslo kommunes art collection.
In 2017 she was nominated for the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB's art grant.

Eggen works with analog color photography, video and sculpture. Her work explores the body as a site for involuntary everyday actions, the ones we deem irrational, in reflexes and instincts and in the unspoken messages they convey.
She examines nonverbal communication and body symbolism, often dismantling and distorting body language.
With the help of performative methods, she searches for new opportunities in bodily movement and tries to capture the ones not already deeply enculturated and rooted in our bodies. With this, she attempts to take part in the production of a new physical language, one that can reach beyond the optimizing and orderly organization of the body.

Ingrid Eggen

Ingrid Eggen (b. 1978, NO) is concerned with the body and its involuntary actions, the ones we deem irrational. These actions are on a par with affect theory: They turn us away from the rational and towards the notion that something more basic informs our actions, such as muscles, reflexes and instinct.
Recent solo exhibitions include MELK, Oslo (2021), Oslo Negativ (2021), The 9th f/stop - Festival für Fotografie Leipzig (2021) Fotografihuset at Sukkerbiten (2020), Noplace (2020), Sandefjord Art Center (2020), gallery Knipsu, Bergen (2018) and MELK, Oslo (2018). Eggen’s work has recently been acquired by the National Museum in Norway, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, The The Henie Onstad Collection, Møller Collection Haugar Kunstmuseum, Equinor Art Programme and KORO.

Gesture is one of the obsessions of modernity, it has been stated. Methods of studying, observing and archiving were put to use in science and art, for example, to build anthropological catalogues of human embodied knowledge and memory, or to boost efficiency in industrial production. Film and photography have been instrumental in this endeavor, as means to record, dissect, fragment, isolate, extract, slow down and store certain gestures from the flow of life. Eggen’s project stands in continuation with and contrast to this tradition. Rather than capturing gestures that can be further honed for utilitarian and economic purpose, or that are already deeply encultured and engrained in our bodies, Ingrid Eggen seeks out the ones that are not. Thereby she partakes in the production of a new bodily language in order to reach beyond the optimizing and ordered organization of the body.

In her work, Eggen is interested in how living bodies develop new physical and psychological capabilities in response to changed living conditions, be they cultural, social, technological or environmental. A general ecological turn in contemporary philosophy and art resonates here, in which attention is directed towards the interrelations between organisms and their milieus. One can also see the works in grapple grasp at Future Fair against the more specific backdrop of an intensified formalization of hand gestures put in place by the influx of, and our quick habituation with, touchscreens in the last decade. Surely, gestures of the body and of the hands have historically been subjected to formalization and codification. Classical and Renaissance rhetorical treatises provided detailed guidance to orators regarding the rhetorical power of specific gestures. The Mudras of Buddhism and Hinduism provide an extensive catalogue of symbolic gestures of the hands and fingers used in meditation, ceremonies and dance, considered to release certain reflexes. In gang culture, hand signs are key identificatory markers. Indeed, body language and sensory perception is always culturally coded, as pointed out for instance by anthropologist Constance Classen. With touchscreens, however, this codification is of a different and highly intensified order, with tech companies patenting and securing corporate ownership to a rapidly increasing number of (touch) gestures. Thereby a highly formatted language of hand gestures is in development.

MELK is proud to present Norwegian artist Ingrid Eggen and Swedish artist Erik Gustafsson at CHART 2021. Both artists are dealing with analog photography in a performative and gestural way that are beyond documentary narratives. With an intricate understanding of color and light they push the boundaries of contemporary photography, how we interact with images, and our understanding of the photograph as object.

Future Fair

Kaya Wilkins 

Admir Batlak

Simona Barbera

Nina Skarsbø

Farhad Kalantary

Mary N. Hasavari

Karen Nikgol


Also known as Okay Kaya. Kaya Wilkins is a Norwegian-American musician, composer, and artist from New Jersey and Nesodden. She expresses non-dualistic concepts, youth culture, and identities through her works. Her video works have previously been shown at K4 gallery in Oslo, and her photographs have been published by Office magazine, NYC. 

 at MELK will be her Norwegian debut, exhibiting photographic works.


Batlak has a background from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He works with textiles, sculpture and clothes. Central to his work is experimentation with craft and the development of new textiles. Through a multitude of references to fashion, history, social movements, and mainstream culture, he creates complex expressions that observe the present, exploring questions about taste, ideals and identity. He has previously shown at Galleri Riis, acquired by National Museum and won Norske Kunstforeningers debutantpris at Høstutstillingen. He lives and works in Oslo.


Simona Barbera’s practice spans from sound, sculpture, installation, to a variety of mediums. By exploring the sensibilities of urban spaces under changes and pressures, most of her work stems from the acoustic environment developing into abstract sonic textures of layered forms. She uses fragments of poetry in her work and investigates the relationship between the recorded voice, the body, and a variety of sculptural materials related to her immediate surroundings.
Her works have previously been shown at Lydgalleriet and The 54th Venice Biennale, amongst many other spaces. Since 2019 she has been co-running with Ronny Faber Dahl the online digital format 

. Barbera is based between Moss and Genova.


Kalantary is a Norwegian visual artist and curator with an Iranian/American background. He works with film and video installations, sculptures and art projects in public space. Kalantary works primarily in a non-narrative context combining the autobiographical approach with an investigation of formal and historical aspects of his media. His film and video works are concerned with the poetics of everyday life as they explore the potentiality of the moving image and the relationship of sound and image.
Kalantary’s works have been shown widely around the country and abroad and they are part of the collections of Moderna museum, Oslo kommune and KORO – Public Art Norway. Kalantary also works as an organizer and he was the co-founder and artistic leader of the artist initiative Atopia: film-video kunst (2003-17) in Oslo. He lives and works in Nesodden.


Skarsbø works primarily with sculpture/installation and painting, thematically connecting her work to the cross point of humanity and nature. The works and process of creation have often references to scientific phenomena and architectural structures. Her works also reflect how we as humans, look upon materials, and the deceiving nature of surface, and have previously been shown at Kösk and galleries in China, Norway, and Denmark. Nina lives and works in Oslo.


Hasavari has Thai, Iranian and Norwegian background and explores non-dualistic manifestations in spirituality, psychology, society, and popular culture. Her works usually revolve around narratives. 

 is part one of a trilogy that follows the first poet in the world – Enheduanna, and her existence within parallel universes where she embodies an oracle, a high priestess, and a tower. The three films are all made from the same material (footage). Hasavari explores how something can be the same, and particular – at the same time.
Her films have been screened at film festivals all over the world which has earned her five nominations at five different film festivals, among them, Oscar-qualifying Bogota Short Film Festival. She received honorable mention at The Isle of Wight International Film Festival and won International Screenwriters associations´ prize for best screenplay. Mary is currently developing her feature debut as a director with support from the Norwegian Film Institute and a documentary/stage production with Karen Nikgol.


Nikgol’s work ranges from different fields of aesthetics that relate to spiritual practices, combined with subcultural references. Investigating esotericism combined with the erotic, juxtaposing meaning with surrealism, working solo or in cooperation with actors and dancers where both his paintings and stage productions strive to create expressive, vital and contemporary imagery.
He has exhibited paintings and directed productions at galleries and theatre spaces, notably Ghetto Justice and Satyricon at Black Box Teater in Oslo. His future works include the documentary film and stage production Dhamma with Mary N. Hasavari. Nikgol was born in Teheran, grew up in Trondheim and is now living in Oslo.

I.
a. The combining of two elements unto a third and higher state.
b. The dialectic merging of thesis and antithesis unto a higher state of truth.

II. Adj. “I am synthesis”.
a. A multicultural person, also referred to as a “third culture kid”.
b. A person that embodies two or several contrasting cultural / ethnical / gender / religious etc. identities.
c. A person that has transcended former identity, and becomes what they always have been.

III.
a. A summary or connections of particularities that creates unity.
b. Production of a new matter, by the unification of connections, chemical elements or groups.
c. The combination of different opinions and terms unto coherence.


Kaya Wilkins / Admir Batlak / Simona Barbera / Nina Skarsbø / Farhad Kalantary / Mary N. Hasavari / Karen Nikgol

Curated by Mary N. Hasavari and Karen Nikgol

SYNTHESIS

Thyra Dragseth

 (b. 1993 Copenhagen) is a Norwegian artist based between Kristiansand, Norway, and Lisbon, Portugal. Dragseth works with installation, video, and photography and often involves an autobiographical approach. Her work is concerned with interpersonal relations, and the political and social context in which we are part. Dragseth is educated at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, and the faculty of Fine Arts, Lisboa. Recent solo and group shows include Estufa Fria Lisboa (2021), KÖSK, Oslo (2021), Thirdbase, Lisboa (2021), Sol, Bornholm (2019), QB Gallery, Oslo (2019).

There is a lamp which shines forcefully from the other side of a doorframe; a naked body that comes into view and disappears behind a laced curtain; a glowing line in the darkness that mirrors itself onto the tarmac road as a black-red pool of blood. The photographs of Thyra Dragseth are orgies of colours and light that pull, shutter, screen and scold the eyes of the beholder. Or put in another way; like portals they lead us towards places which we are eager to visit but dread to be held captive within. With curiosity, the images let us investigate bodyparts, structures and fragments from landscapes, the dead ones as well as the living. Anxiously, they transmit to us a restless feeling – we understand that time is up. The interval stretching from the first moment of attention until the camera lens focuses and finally executes passes by within a split second. The uncanny is a leit motive in Dragseth’s practice, desire inevitably another. When meeting her photographs we are confronted with elements that exudes an ‘unheimlich’ sensation; the odd feeling of something being familiar and strange to us at the same time. Jacques Lacan describes it as being in a state of mind where we are no longer capable of separating good from bad, pleasure from pain. With her camera, Dragseth is situated in the middle of this ambiguous world, she is the center to which illuminating events and human fantasies occur but she is also, always and forever, distant to the world she is documenting. Dragseth has taken upon herself the role of the outsider – she continually seeks gravitational points of navigation in the reality in which she herself became a part of when she moved from Norway to Portugal in 2017. Life as an immigrant is bittersweet; feelings of longing mixed with repulsion when thinking of the homely existence one has abandoned; at the same time the everpresent future appears thrillingly brutal in all its inaccessibility. Hidden in Dragseths photographs lies a critique of both the new and the old, the life chosen versus the one discarded. In these images a grid repeats itself; a guarding fence which the artist herself has chosen to reinforce. As if she wants to tell us that not everything follows human need for logic — we are not supposed to understand all that we want to. Susan Sontag writes: “in place of hermeneutics we need an erotics of art”. In response Dragseth anarchistically mixes both tenchiques and formats and thereby underlines the extra-material properties of photography. Her work consists above all of reflexive situations spread out between various places; a tender dwelling on both nature and the artificial. Like zoological garden seen from an unusual perspective. It might be worth asking oneself on which side of the fencing we stand.

The exhibition is supported by The Audio and Visual Fund and The Norwegian Photographic Fund (Nofofo)

MELK is proud to present the first solo show at the gallery with Norwegian artist Thyra Dragseth, this Friday from 18.00–21.00. In 

 Dragseth will show a new body of work consisting of 16 photographs and an installation.


A House of ClayErik Gustafsson

A House of Clay
Erik Gustafsson