Poetic mood pictures meet urban longing
Maria Natalie Skjeset's aesthetic interpretation of the cyclical wheel of the year clears the way for the surreal and chaotic we encounter in Rino Larsen's joy-creating picture world.
May-Britt Bjørlo Henriksen
The exhibitions Fix U and Årstidene are now shown in Galleri EKG in Hamar. Two vibrant digital artists both challenge and reinforce each other's expressions.
- The name of my exhibition comes from a picture with Sinnataggen, which made me want to use it in the exhibition, says Rino Larsen.
The room for interpretation is large when you watch FIX U by Rino Larsen.
The Oslo artist has just returned from a stay in Valencia, where in recent years he has started to add two periods of work. One in the spring, and one in the fall.
- Valencia is the city that has hit me El Carmen is Grünerløkka times 5. Graffiti is allowed. There I can go out in the morning to buy bread, and smell the paint and see things that have been done in the evening and the night before. There I find a lot of inspiration for the pictures I make. It is an arts and culture city with five universities, and a pulsating dynamic environment with people of all generations. Inspires me a lot, says Larsen.
He has been developing the images since he first went there in 2021. Larsen says that he is concerned with the room for interpretation that lies in art, and that he greatly appreciates all the feedback he receives.
- The feedback I get on my photos is often that people are happy, but also that many find some comfort in them in the situations they are in.
His inspiration for creating the images is a strong desire to contribute something positive. Something the themes in the pictures often reflect. As much as joy of life and love, there is a strong energy and wonder in the pictures.
- I have chosen art as the arena for it. In the pictures, there is something about caring for each other. Whether it's in the field of love, or caring for others, he says.
Larsen has a very complex background. From having worked in marketing, teaching over 600 students in graphic design, he has created three companies, where he now only works in one, while he is quick to study and use new technology. By combining technology and creativity, he explores the possibilities of creating art where the compositions are complex and in many of them there are hidden elements and messages that are not always experienced without careful study.
- I have been working with digital methods since I bought my first Mac with a drawing board in 1994. I am very interested in combining technology and creativity. Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple, quickly became my great god. His way of challenging the technology made the heart rate rise, he says.
Photo: Rino Larsen
Essence
The illustrator and artist Rino Larsen thinks it is incredibly beautiful that Maria Natalie Skjeset and he will exhibit together in Galleri EKG.
- When I saw her photos for the first time, I immediately saw that they were of high quality. I see that she is an aesthetic person who is very careful with the details because I know the techniques she uses so well. I have a noisy, urban expression, but there is also a lot of emotion in my pictures, says Larsen.
The intersection where the images of the two artists meet is precisely the combination of the way they use technology and creativity. Totally different expressions, while both attempt to capture nature's, or perhaps man's, essence.
Something that is very often the mainstay in Maria Natalie Skjeset's photos. Where she assembles the elements the image consists of regardless of the authentic location. Be careful if it's from a natural landscape or urban landscape. The desire to communicate blurs the boundaries of what is possible. As we also see in Larsen's pictures, how many are in mixed media techniques, which have a much more noisy and urban expression. Where some are also painted in acrylic.
- The fact that the exhibition received the title Årstidene was not accidental, but it came and took hold over time. The project was underway before the title landed. The exhibition consists of quite a few new images, but also some older ones that tie it together. The classic seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter, says Maria Natalie Skjeset.
The sketch explains this by saying that it is not specific that you necessarily see that it is spring or summer in them. She thinks that it is more that the pictures express the mood you feel from the different seasons, the colors and the feeling you get when you look at it.
Mood
Maria Natalie Skjeset by the spring goddess Flora in an autumn mood. Photo: May-Britt Bjørlo Henriksen.
- It is not realism that I seek, but always the mood, the color composition and the transitions in the image, but also from image to image. So now it will be a bit exciting to see if it will be assembled as I have planned, she says.
There is a kind of transition in her pictures, where the intention for them to play off each other and harmonize is clearly evident.
- It is more the idea of the circle of life, than the seasons themselves. The image is created when you have a feeling or mood in you. Stretching towards summer, or towards winter. Can sit on a hot summer's day to work on a winter picture and vice versa, says Skjeset.
Skjeset was born in Bærum, and lives in Hamar. She mainly works with photo-based digital graphics. This is a technique she has delved into since she completed a bachelor's degree in virtual art and design in 2013. She has also studied art history, history of ideas and graphic design.
- There is always a lot of nature in my pictures, but mythology also fascinates me a little, whether it is Greek, Roman or Norse mythology, or perhaps Indian. One image, called Flora, is named after a Roman and ancient Italian goddess. She was to some extent the goddess of fertility and spring, but as she appears here, the mood is more autumnal. Here I have taken a self-portrait as a starting point, because then you can do what you want, she says.
Flora is an image from a future series, where she explores several goddesses from several different religions.
- The cyclical is becoming important to me because that's life in a way. I think of life as cyclical, because we is it. Then you can think about whether the soul exists, or whether we have several lives. Those themes always occupy me. I am interested in things like philosophy and spirituality. I think cyclically, and then the seasons become part of it.