BIO

Petter Solberg is a visual artist currently based in Oslo, Norway. His work includes sculpture, painting, poetry and animation. Since graduating with an MFA from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010, Solberg has exhibited in both group and solo shows home and internationally, and has participated in residencies in Norway, Denmark and Germany. Much of Solberg’s work is created in a state of playful ambivalence where the process keeps shifting between different media and materials, and where different ideas and narrative possibilities are explored. The works often consider different aspects of contemporary culture and society, usually expressed within fictional narrative contexts.

Having worked with a wide range of materials and techniques for his sculpture and installation projects, Solberg has also been experimenting with digital drawing and 3D modeling, and are currently exploring how VR can be used for the purpose of working sculpturally and spatially while travelling. Some of these works may exist as digital work, or may later be re-created with physical media. This ‘sculpture on the go approach’ is also inspired by an effort to limit the amount of waste material in the creative process, as only the final sculpture will be created with physical materials.

STATEMENT

My work process exists in a constant state of ambivalence. My ambivalence towards different aesthetics, themes and forms. The ambivalence towards analysis and mystery. The love of sober realism and the simultaneous faith in seductive and magical powers of visual and textual language. I strive to create work that simultaneously reveal and conceal. As one element comes to light, another element is hidden. The mystery does not disappear, it’s simply displaced.

I tend to shift between different expressions like sculpture, painting and animation. I prefer working in series instead of single works. I keep working on a series of ‘never-ending projects’, that are all part of the same overarching process, but represent different aesthetic standpoints. These projects tend to arise as reactions on a previous projects. This way my artistic ambivalence is reinforced, so that I’m always slightly off balance. Whereas one projects exist on the conviction that ‘less is more’, another one might say ‘fuck that! Keep pouring!’. I like to imagine that my projects originates outside myself, founded by ‘somebody else’. This role play lets me explore ideas that wold otherwise have been censored according to ‘my actual’ taste. This way of thinking usually exists as a secret tool. On occasion this aspect is revealed to the audience as a performative element.

I also work with text, both as an independent expression, as well as part of text based art. I decided to study creative writing in addition to art because I wanted a deeper understanding of the structural similarities and differences between text and image, and because I felt that there was still a lot of unexplored potential in text based art.

CONTACT

Please feel free to use the contact form if you have any questions.

SKETCHBOOK

A collection of smaller work and drawings, finished and unfinished.

I’m a firm believer that sharing one’s own work process in the studio can be valuable to others. The process can be messy, challenging and full of failure and doubt along the way, and sometimes the path towards a finished work can take unexpected turns. It seems that even artists who make completely different work for different audiences can always find a common ground in the process. I enjoy that.

Personally I love visiting other artists’ studios to see work in progress and get an idea of how they work. In many cases, I find it to be as inspiring and motivating as going to exhibitions. There can be an interesting tension in the work when it is unresolved, when there is something lacking or just too much.

2025-05-02 | More sketches will be added in the following weeks.