Van Etten Gallery

Oslo

About the gallery

Van Etten Gallery is an independent art space for contemporary art in Oslo, Norway.

It was established in autumn 2020, and is run by curator and art historian Katja van Etten Jarem, and visual artist Øyvind Sørfjordmo. The exhibition venue is located on Oslo’s east side. Van Etten’s curatorial profile focuses on promoting young, aspiring artists and to establish links to more experienced and acclaimed artists. The gallery’s aim is to provide an art space where engaging and dynamic synergies take place, as part of the local art scene

Featured artists

INSECURE-ART-GIRL (NO)

Introduction

INSECURE-ART-GIRL

Van Etten Gallery is participating at Market Art Fair 2023 with works by the Norwegian artist duo INSECURE-ART-GIRL (NO: USIKKERKUNSTJENTE), consisting of Alexandra Jegerstedt and Iben Isabell Krogsgaard.

The alter ego INSECURE-ART-GIRL is their collaborative practice. In this symbiosis they combine their individual knowledge of materials and techniques and challenge each other creatively through dialogue, drawing, and experimentation. The duo works with a wide range of materials such as digital jacquard weave, oil painting, plastic, stone, bronze and glass. The working process is defined by an acute awareness of materials and their particular qualities. This pragmatic approach requires genuine creative receptiveness and they often have to make compromises when it comes to testing their individual ideas, in order to create a new, unique and unified expression.

Jegerstedt and Krogsgaard met while attending The Art Academy in Bergen and they have worked together since 2018. The name, INSECURE-ART-GIRL, is a comment on an prevailing sensation of ambivalence towards one’s own expression as a young, non-established artist. In their practice they also investigate the narratives that characterise both the historical and the contemporary art scene in which material and technique often are associated with gender.

Alexandra Jegerstedt (b. 1986 Trondheim, Norway) lives and works in Trondheim, Norway. Iben Isabell Krogsgaard (b. 1993 Arendal, Norway) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. They have both received grades from Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts (BFA) and The Art Academy - Department of Contemporary Art in Bergen (MFA). In the spring 2023, INSECURE-ART-GIRL will be showing their work at The National Association of Painters, Norway (Landsforeningen Norske Malere/LNM). Previously, they have had solo exhibitions in several exhibition spaces such as Trøndelag Center for Contemporary Art (TSSK), Telemark Art Center (TSK), VAN ETTEN Gallery, and Kongsberg Kunstforening. They have also participated in group exhibitions at KÖSK, Coast Contemporary and Høstutstillingen in Oslo.