A feast for the eyes to be unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art:“An Appetite for Painting: Contemporary Painting 2000–2014”

The exhibition “An Appetite for Painting: Contemporary Painting 2000–2014”, set to open at the Museum of Contemporary Art on 12 September, allows the public to experience painting in the contemporary art of thirteen leading international and Norwegian artists. The exhibition will display a total of fifty-three paintings, most of which are recent works from the past three years. 

 It has been over a decade since the Museum of Contemporary Art held a major group exhibition focusing on contemporary painting. Perhaps this exhibition can also spark off a debate on whether a return to painting has taken place within contemporary art, which has recently been dominated by genres such as photography, installation, video, and performance? 

Recent exhibitions abroad, such as last year’s Painting Forever! in Berlin and the recent Painting Now at Tate Britain in London, do in fact suggest such a trend. 

 During the autumns of 2012 and 2013, the National Museum organized two very well-visited conferences on contemporary painting. Several of the conference papers have been published on the museum’s website, and they will also be available as podcasts in a dedicated room at the exhibition throughout the entire period, up until the exhibition closes on 4 January 2015. 

The works are not limited to a single motif, style, or theme. Rather, the exhibition “An Appetite for Painting: Contemporary Painting 2000–2014” wants to showcase the wide range of painting today. 

Several of the foreign artists, such as Chris Ofili (United Kingdom/Trinidad), Kerry James Marshall (USA), and Marlene Dumas (South Africa/The Netherlands), are celebrated stars on the international art firmament, while it is the first time the Norwegian public will have the chance to experience artists such as Tomory Dodge (USA), Analia Saban (Argentina/USA), and Brian Blanchflower (Australia). 

The exhibition will feature the following artists (in alphabetical order): Gordon Bennett (Australia), Brian Blanchflower (Australia), Tomory Dodge (USA), Marlene Dumas (South Africa/The Netherlands), Dag Erik Elgin (Norway), Andreas Eriksson (Sweden), Olav Christopher Jenssen (Norway), Jitish Kallat (India), Kerry James Marshall (USA), Dorothy Napangardi (Australia), Chris Ofili (United Kingdom/Trinidad), Analia Saban (Argentina/USA), and Mari Slaattelid (Norway). 

 The exhibition has been curated by Gavin Jantjes. This exhibition represents his farewell exhibition at the National Museum after having curated around fifty exhibitions both in Norway and abroad. Line Engen has been in charge of presenting the exhibition, while Lita Ellingsen has served as project manager. 

The exhibition will be accompanied by an comprehensive catalogue with essays by Gavin Jantjes and Robert Storr, formerly a curator at MoMA in New York and now the dean of the Yale University School of Art. 

The reader that will be published in tandem with the catalogue includes the papers delivered at the autumn 2013 conference, several of which were by artists participating in the current exhibition.

The press will be invited to a preview at 11:00, Thursday 11 September, the day before the general opening. Several of the artists will be present, including Tomory Dodge.

 

For press images, see: http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/no/presse/#/pressreleases

Caption: Marlene Dumas, Skulls, 2013-14