Welcome to the opening of two new exhibitions at Kunsthall Stavanger, Friday March 7, 5-7 pm!

Ketchup and Blood shows two videos by Paul McCarthy (b.1945); The Painter and Family Tyranny (Modeling and Molding). The title reflects upon McCarthy's interest in, and interaction with, materials. The materials are not only tools, but become the work itself. In the videos, McCarthy is playing with ketchup's likeness to blood (among others), such exploring reality and artifice. The artist utilizes formal and thematic measures borrowed from TV series, porn- and horror movies, digging into the mediated everyday that we all try to keep at a distance without ever succeeding.

In 2014, Kunsthall Stavanger is excited to host the entire range of curator Randi Berger’s flag project, now in it’s fourth iteration (previous sites include New York City, Bergen, and Nesflaten). Each flag (there are 53 altogether) has been individually commissioned by Berger from a wide range of Norwegian and international artists and collectives, and will be flown outside of the Kunsthall Stavanger one at a time, for one week each over the course of the year.

Sunday March 2 - Sunday March 9: Ida Ekblad, Knotted Petiole

In conjunction with Hold Stenhårdt Fast På Greia Di - Norwegian Art and Feminism 1968-89, we're exploring current feminist projects in Norway and abroad. Writer Jen Kennedy and artist Liz Linden have teamed up on an ambitious series of projects directing attention and creating conversations around current acts of feminism(s).

One of their ongoing projects, The New York Times Reading Group, periodically brings together a diverse group to meet and discuss that day's issue of The New York Times newspaper through the lens of contemporary feminism. Reading groups have been held all over New York City and beyond, including venues such as DISPATCH, P•P•O•W Gallery, the New Museum, Murray Guy, Independent Curators International (ICI), EFA Project Space, and the University of Southern California. We caught up with Jen and Liz to talk about the NYTFRG, and the provocative nature of the word ‘feminism’ itself.

Utrecht-based artist Merijn Hos’ playful and intriguing wooden sculptures will be on view at Kunsthall Stavanger from March 7 - May 5, 2014. Hos' first collection of sculptures was produced for the Stedelijk Museum Kampen in the Netherlands in 2012. Since then, they have been exhibited at Design Museum Helsinki and at galleries in New York, Dusseldorf, and Malmø. In the last several years, the collection has grown to 262 unique sculptures varying in sizes between 5 and 14 inches. Hos says he intends his work to be joyful and to make people smile, but that there are often underlying social themes in his illustrations, sculptures and installations.

Hos works as both an artist and an illustrator and will be offering workshops for kids as part of the exhibition at Kunsthall Stavanger. Below Hos gives us some insight into his background and inspirations.  

Torbjørn Rødland is the ONS artist in 2014, and his exhibition will take place at Kunsthall Stavanger.

Torbjørn Rødland was born born and raised in Stavanger. He studied photography at Bergen National Academy of the Arts. Since the mid-1990s his work has been shown in some of the world’s leading art museums and galleries. He was included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale of 1999. The Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo arranged a retrospective exhibition of Rødland’s work in 2003. Besides Astrup Fearnley and Stavanger art museum, public collections include Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). Rødland has five photography books published – the most recent, titled Vanilla Partner, by MACK in 2012. He produced five short art movies between 2004 and 2007. Torbjørn Rødland lives and works in Los Angeles.