Vestlandsutstillingen encourages visual artists associated with the counties of Western Norway; Møre & Romsdal, Sogn & Fjordane, Hordaland and Rogaland to apply for participation in our anniversary exhibition in 2022.
The exhibition will be curated by Espen Johansen.
For questions please contact Exhibition Manager Anneli Belsvik Aras:
kontakt@vestlandsutstillingen.no or phone +47 934 94 145 (Mondays and Tuesdays 09-16).
Espen Johansen (b. 1985 in Bergen, Norway) is an art historian, curator and writer based in Bergen. He holds an MA in Art History from the University of Bergen (2011) and a degree in Creative Curating from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2014). Starting in 2019, he will participate in the one-year course, ‘Negotiating Artistic Value: Art and Architecture in Public Space’ at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.
Previously Johansen has worked as interim director at Kabuso Art Centre, curator for the graduation show for Bergen Academy of Art and Design, assistant curator at Bergen Kunsthall, and project manager for Bergen Assembly. Curatorial projects include Sandra Vaka – Jugs, Daniel Gustav Cramer – five days, Terence Koh – sticks, stones and bones, Tora Endestad Bjørkheim, Bjørn-Henrik Lybeck, and co-curated the group show Nabolag, where different artists made site-specific works in the area Danmarksplass in Bergen.
His curatorial practice stems from investigations into the potency of art as an alternative communicative device through time and across borders in our mediatized society, particularly focusing on art in the public space and the power structures of the public sphere; who gets to say what and how? His exhibition projects are usually developed over long time in close dialogue with the artists and result in new productions. Johansen has previously curated both solo and group exhibitions, as well as interventions and temporary artworks in public space. He has worked as an art theory lecturer at Bergen School of Art for several years and contributed with texts to multiple publications and art magazines.
www.espenjohansen.art
Jugendstilsenteret & KUBE, Ålesund
Sunnfjord Kunstlag, Førde
Haugesund Billedgalleri, Haugesund
Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger
Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øystese
Kunstgarasjen, Bergen
Vestlandsutstillingen (The West Land Exhibition) is an annual touring exhibition with works by artists connected to Western Norway. The exhibition presents contemporary art that reflects the Western art scene from local, national and international contexts towards the rest of the country.
As the country´s only regional exhibition that is curated, applicants to Vestlandsutstillingen are juried by professional curators or artists. The only requirement is to have a connection to Western Norway, wether it be they are born, has grown up, studied or been a permanent resident for a period of time in one of the counties of Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn & Fjordane or Møre & Romsdal.
