Ole Jørgen Ness - Flat Acrylic

Ole Jørgen Ness is one of Norway’s most important contemporary artists, well known for his incessant creativity. His artistic approach allows him to explore different styles of expression and examine art historical movements through a dense fabric of literary, visual and philosophical references. Starting on November 3, Ness will create a site-specific work entitled Flat Acrylic on the floor of the spectacular Tower Room at KODE. Visitors will be able to follow the work in progress from beginning to end.

Flat Acrylic offers a pure experience in the individual’s consciousness. The work will develop according to a simple algorithm that describes organic growth—the so-called gnomonic growth progression, which is involved in, for example, the development of teeth and bone structures. The fields are expanded, giving rise to new shapes along the way. When the time available in the Tower Room expires in February 2019, the work will be destroyed. What will remain are only the memories of the work in the minds of those who saw it.

About the artists Ole Jørgen Ness attracted attention in the 1990s, when he began to operate with nine different artist personas, challenging the myth that every artist should settle for a specific style or identity. After nearly a decade, his “Nesstudio” fused these various positions and identities, giving rise to new and unforeseeable idioms. Ness has been represented in several exhibitions in Norway and abroad, with solo exhibitions at The Boiler Room (2013), Stenersenmuseet (2012), and Sørlandets Kunstmuseum (2010), among others. He has done large commissions for public spaces, like the Oslo Metro (2016), and is represented in numerous private and public collections. Ness was the official festival artist at the Bergen International Festival in 2006 and represented Norway at the São Paulo Biennale in 2002.