Per Berntsen

Per Berntsen (b. 1953) is one of the veterans of camera-based art in Norway and an important advocate for the medium's rise and acceptance on the local art scene. Berntsen was educated at Trent Polytechnic / Derby College of Art, England, during the second half of the 1970's and has exhibited actively since his debut in 1980 at Fotogalleriet in Oslo. Important recent projects are the 2008 publication and exhibition at Galleri Riis, 'Generator', documenting 100 generator halls from hydroelectric power plants in southern Norway, and 'Down Under Up North' in 2010, a documentation and art project about the mining industry in Kirkenes. From 2013-2015, Berntsen undertook an artistic documentation of the Taiga, the landscape connecting the northern parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. This project resulted in the publication and exhibition tour 'Metsä' in 2018. In 2019, a new development in Berntsen's work was introduced, with a series of landscapes from the Veståsen area in Tinn, Telemark, close to his home. Resulting from field work in 2018 and 2019, these large archival inkjet prints on baryta paper represented a recognizable theme in Berntsen's oeuvre - the unpopulated landscape - but they also marked a significant new departure as they were the first color images that he had exhibited to date. Per Berntsen's works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, AKO Art Foundation/Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in Kristiansand and the Oslo City Art Collections in Oslo.

• Born 1953 in Modum, Norway
• Lives and works in Tinn, Telemark, Norway

Artist's homepage

EDUCATION:

1. 1975 - 1978Diploma in Creative Photography, Trent Polytechnic/Derby College of Art, UK

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1. 2020May 1985. Landscapes from Eggedal, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2. 2019Veståsen. New works & Vintage prints from the 1980's and 90's, Galleri Riis, Oslo
3. 2017Metsä, Murmansk Art Museum, Murmansk, Russia
4. 2013Down Under Up North, Northern Norway Art Museum, Tromsø (with Bente Geving)
5. 2013Metsä - New Landscapes, Galleri Riis, Oslo, Norway
6. 2008Generator, Galleri Riis, Oslo
7. 2006Power Stations, Galerie Kai Hilgemann, Berlin, Germany
8. 2005Changes, Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum, Rjukan, Norway
9. 2002Industrial Landscape Grenland, Galleri Riis, Oslo
10. 1995Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
11. 1991RAM Galleri, Oslo
12. 1983Rjukan Library, Norway
13. 1980Fotogalleriet, Oslo

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1. 2018Det Felles Eide (The Common Eye), Kunstnernes Hus in collaboration with Oslo Municipality
2. 2014Crossroads, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway
3. 2013Fotografica Bogotá, Colombia
4. 2012Galleri Gann, Sandnes, Norway
5. 2008The Mountains in Art, Henie-Onstad Art Center, Oslo
6. 2007Norwegian Art Photography, Stensersen Museum, Oslo
7. 1998Farms and Waterways, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
8. 199722 artists from Oslo, Gothenburg Art Museum, Sweden
9. 1987Norwegian Landscape, Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS