Torbjørn Rødland

Torbjørn Rødland (born 3 April 1970) is a Los Angeles-based photographer known for portraits, still lives and landscapes that transcend their often banal settings and motifs and move into the otherworldly.[1] Since the late 1990s, his work has been exhibited widely. It was included in the main exhibition of the 1999 Venice Biennale. The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo arranged a retrospective exhibition of Rødland’s work in 2003.[2] Public collections also include Fonds national d'art contemporain (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago), The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City). After years of short stays in Tokyo, Beijing, Melbourne, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Tallinn and New York, Torbjørn Rødland has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2010.

Rødland is currently represented by Air de Paris, Paris; Algus Greenspon, New York; Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; Nils Stærk, Copenhagen; STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo.

Background and Education

Rødland was born in 1970 in Stavanger, Norway. He studied Photography at the National College of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway and cultural studies at the Rogaland University Centre in Stavanger, Norway.

Work

Rødland's photography moves from genre to genre; portrait, landscape, still life can all be found in his constructed imagery of the everyday, whether in his Scandinavian hometown or in visual translations and explorations of Japanese Moé aesthetics or Americana.[3] Wanting to push forward the artistic boundaries of his medium, Rødland has reconceptualized and integrated aesthetic qualities dismissed in postmodern art. Building on the work by The Pictures Generation and Jeff Wall, Rødland's photography represents a surprising revaluation of lyricism and what he calls the sensuality of the photographic moment.[4] Originally known for his images of young beauties, Rødland transcended this potential trope by consistently inventing new lures for viewers of his photographs.[5] An example of these lures is the subtle co-existence of the twisted with the warm normalcy of his figures; as seen in his photograph of a woman's hand with an octopus tentacle creeping through her sleeve and wrapped around her fingers.[6] Also a subtle symbol of nonduality, this image is characteristic of Rødland's work.[7] His matter of factness, even in stylized imagery and multiple exposures, is what allows Rødland to straddle both the commonplace and the otherworldly.[8] Or, as curator Bennett Simpson put it in an essay on Rødland, published in 2000: "His images are subjunctive; they operate under the yoke of a doubt, an impacted desire, the possibility of an impossibility."[9]

Between 2004 and 2007 Rødland produced six video works. One of these, titled 132 BPM, was exhibited solo at MoMA PS1 (Long Island City)[10] and at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima).

Books

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Press

References

  1. ↑ The Photo Department. "Our Top 10 Photo Books of 2012". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  2. ↑ http://afmuseet.no/en/samlingen/utvalgte-kunstnere/r/torbjarn-radland
  3. ↑ Gavin, Francesca. "Torbjørn Rødland". Dazed Digital. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  4. ↑ Blalock, Lucas with Rødland and an introduction by Hoffman, Jens, Folding the Periphery, Mousse #42, Milan 2014, pp.118
  5. ↑ Herbert, Martin. "Profile: Torbjørn Rødland". Contemporary Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  6. ↑ http://25.media.tumblr.com/39dabc6ee0d5bf42ef1b78a7d5369690/tumblr_mvmdy3Ck2H1qe31lco1_1280.jpg
  7. ↑ Blalock, Lucas with Rødland and an introduction by Hoffman, Jens, Folding the Periphery, Mousse #42, Milan 2014, pp.119
  8. ↑ Nickas, Bob. "The Perverted Photography of Torbjørn Rødland". Vice. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Simpson, Bennett, "Torbjørn Rødland's Sentimental Education", Nu: The Nordic Art Review 2000/No.3-4, Stockholm, pp.52-59
  10. ↑ http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/108
  11. ↑ http://www.moussepublishing.com/products-page/product/torbjorn-rodland-sasquatch-century/
  12. ↑ http://www.mackbooks.co.uk/books/40-Vanilla-Partner.html
  13. ↑ http://www.hasslabooks.com/tr11_001.html
  14. ↑ http://www.libraryman.se/aditlotr/
  15. ↑ http://www.mackbooks.co.uk/books/685-I-Want-to-Live-Innocent.html
  16. ↑ http://www.mackbooks.co.uk/books/382-White-Planet-Black-Heart.html
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