Celebrated Norwegian artist Kjell Torriset is currently exhibiting recent paintings at the Northumbria University Gallery.
Kjell Torriset is resistant to being neatly classified, tamely corralled in some “ism” or other, but in some ways this development has echoed the move from the absolutes of formalist abstraction to the polyvalent images of its successor. From paintings of dreamlike figures he embarked in the 90s on a series of ‘After Images’, a group of related monochromatic paintings of familiar objects which pictorially were stripped back to their essence. As Sue Hubbard describes them, they were “like votive objects which seem to float in space.” Torriset’s 25 paintings in this series “form a conversation both with each other and with the spectator, inviting pairings and comparisons.” They were succeeded in the mid 90s by a remarkable installation of 836 individual paintings of eyes materialising from a dark ground, for Oslo University’s new library building.
Kjell Torriset is a Norwegian painter who lives and works in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex. He has exhibited extensively in Scandinavia and Europe and is recognised as one of the leading artists of his generation in Norway today. His work is represented in many major public and private collections.
Kjell Torriset: ‘Recent Paintings’
14-19 December
Monday to Thursday 10am to 5pm
Northumbria University Gallery and Baring Wing
Northumbria University
Sandyford Road
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST
Tel: 0191 227 4424
Admission free