å.
åse vikse
(karto)grafikar
Åse Vikse (b. 1981) lives and works in Western Norway.
She holds an MA in Fine Art (Printmaking) from Middlesex University, London,
and a BA (Hons) in Communication Design (Illustration) from Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen.
Vikse refers to herself as a wandering artist and her work is research-based
with a strong focus on a process-led practice. As a printmaker, she works both with traditional techniques such as Woodcut, as well as more contemporary Monoprints.
The latter often take the shapes of Artist's Maps which manifest themselves when the artwork and the artist absorb the surroundings together.
Vikse is interested in terms such as Arte Povera and Conceptualism, and gravitates towards themes such as place,
found objects and the already existing element. She often seeks to interpret
the misplaced, to convey the story of the forgotten, the silent,
or the seemingly coincidental encounter that binds us together.
Vikse strives to source the material she uses and the process of developing these
as environmentally sustainable as possible.
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EDUCATION (ART/DESIGN)
2021–2022 MASTER OF ARTS with Distinction, Fine Art (Printmaking), Middlesex University, London, UK
2017–2020 BACHELOR OF ARTS WITH HONOURS, Communication Design: Illustration, Gray’s School of Art Aberdeen, UK
2004–2006 Grafisk Design, Høyskolen Kristiania/Kristiania University College, Bergen, NO
EXHIBITIONS
2024-2025 Group, Wintermarket, Kiosken Studio, Bergen, NO
2024 Group, 'Off the wall and off the table 2024', Galleri Salhus, Tekstilindustrimuseet Salhus, NO
2024 Solo, 'Ég er þetta hús', ArtsIceland Artist Residency, Edinborgarhúsið, Ísafjörður, ICE
2024 Group, 'Open Summer Exhibition 2024', Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK
2024 Group, 'Endless Forms, Most Beautiful', Members' Exhibition, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2024 Group, End of Artist Residency Exhibition, York St John University, York, UK
2024 Group, 'Northumberland Now', Woodhorn Museum, Ashington, UK
2023 Group, 'Gathering', Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2023 Solo, 'å på K 2.0', KFUK-Hjemmet/The Norwegian YWCA, London, UK
2023 Pop-up 'Home • Hoem', The Vessel, York St John University, York, UK
2023 Group, 'Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity 2.0', Alison Richard Building, University of Cambridge, UK
2023 Group, 'Northern Summer Exhibition', Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle, UK
2023 Group, 'Nye medlemmer', Norske Grafikere/The Association of Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo, NO
2023 Group, 'One and Another', Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2023 Group, 'Inspirational Women Artists', A Space Arts, Southampton, UK
2022-23 Group, 'These are Our Treasures', (selected object/tresure) Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2022-23 Group, 'Gallagher & Turner’s Open Exhibition' Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK
2022 Pop-up Exhibition, Sjømannskirken Aberdeen, UK
2022 Solo, 'å på K', KFUK-Hjemmet/The Norwegian YWCA, London, UK
2022 Group, 'Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity', part of IMPACT 12 International Printmaking Conference, Bristol, UK
2022 Group, 'Ossuary', Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2022 Group, 'Mind - be here, present/be here now', Kingshill House, Gloucestershire, UK
2021–22 Group, 'Uig Open 2021/22', [Online], Hulabhaig, Outer Hebrides, UK
2021 Group, '#WalkCreate Gallery', [Online], University of Glasgow et al.
2021 Solo – part of Folkestone Fringe, Oxfam Books & Music, Folkestone, UK
2021 Group, 'Wish I Was There', touring: London Waterloo Station, Reading Station,
Liverpool Lime Station, Leeds Station, Glasgow Central Station, all UK
2020–21 Group, 'Teesside Print Prize 20', Middlesbrough, UK
2020 Group, 'The Resilient Self II', Espacio Gallery, London, UK
2020 Group, 'Uig Open 2020: Re-imagined' [Online], Hulabhaig, Uig, Outer Hebrides, UK
GRANTS
Vestland Fylkeskommune Kunstnarstipend 2024 / Vestland County Council's Artist grant 2024
MEMBERSHIP
The Association of Norwegian Printmakers / Norske Grafikere
The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists / Norske Billedkunstnere
Harding Puls (The artists' organisation of Hardanger)
Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
Bildende Kunstneres Forening Hordaland
RESIDENCIES
2024(Sept) ArtsIceland Residency, Ísafjörður, Iceland
2023-24 AA2A Artist Residency, York St John University, York, UK
PRESENTATIONS/WORKSHOPS
2024 Masterclass, as part of Artist in Residence, York St John University, UK
2022-24 Demonstrations/Workshops, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2021 Presentation, 'The Matter of Circulation' student research conference, Folkestone, UK
COURSES/WORKSHOPS
2024 Multi Process: Paper Making and 3D Print w/Susan Wright, West Yorkshire Print Workshop, UK
2023 Mokuhanga Printing w/Lucy May Schofield, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2023 Wild Colour: Natural Dyeing workshop w/Katie Pollard, Figures that Sway, Tynemouth, UK
2019 Woodcut Bootcamp w/Tom Huck, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2019 Mokuhanga Printing w/Michael Waight, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2018 Risograph Workshop, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2018 Etching Workshop w/Michael Waight, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2016–2017 Printmaking Intermediate w/Lyndsey Gibb, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2015–2016 Printmaking Foundation w/Lyndsey Gibb, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2015–2016 Life Drawing Intermediate w/Rebecca Westguard, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2003 Oil Painting w/Jarl-Hugo Låstad, Folkeuniversitetet, Bergen, NO
a project with the working title 'mapping Northumberland' – this series of artist's maps set out to explore the surrounding landscape of a newcomer. The project has outgrown its working title, outwith the borders of Northumberland. Organically, untamed, in unexpected directions.
Initiated by a need to familiarise oneself as a new inhabitant in the north of Tyne, each artist's map or series dedicates itself to a specific place, area or landscape with the common denominator 'water' and the starting point of 'our roots are soaked in ...water'.
My artist's maps occur in the physical and mental meeting between landscape, artist and artwork. We move together while absorbing our surroundings.
Aln & Alna is part of the 'mapping Northumberland' series. The project started with the making of local artist's maps and spread further beyond national borders, initiated by a search to transform unknown landscape into familiar terrain. Red lines inform about my walk along two rivers in two different countries, the paper contains river water that has shaped them, and the map conveys stories from the river banks, but also something personal. From a person who called two countries their home. Shown during the exhibition 'New Members', Galleri Norske Grafikere,
the Norwegian Printmakers' Gallery, Oslo 2023
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Aln & Alna er del av serien 'mapping Northumberland'. Prosjektet starta med lokale kunstnarkart og breidde seg vidare utover landegrenser, initiert av eit ynskje om å omgjera framandt landskap til kjend terreng. Raude linjer fortel om mi vandring langs to elver i to ulike land, papiret inneheld elvevatn som har forma dei, og karta formidlar historiar frå elvebreiddene, men også noko personleg. Frå ein person som kalla to land for sin heim.
Vist under utstillinga 'Nye Medlemmer', Galleri Norske Grafikere, Oslo 2023
photos: Clare Bowes
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
'But all those overlapping, curving shapes of the tide, as it comes up and turns round and goes back
- just endlessly fascinating.
And it will never be the same again.
Every single unique, every single way, every single breaking of the sea on the rocks has never happened again exactly like that and has never happened before.'
Bridget Riley, 2021
Read more about this project here.
artist's maps
project: mapping Anna-Eva Bergman
technique: frottage print and monotype
created: spring 2024
size: 56 X 76 cm
The Artist's Map in a vitrine at York St John University during 'End of Residency Show' 2024
image: Amy D'Agorne
angst
technique: frottage print and monotype
created: spring 2021
size: 56 X 76 cm
the first large, multi-coloured
frottage walk map I created,
'angst' holds documentation of
Hampstead Garden suburb's surfaces
and the walk as an unsettled black line.
earth day walk
technique: frottage print and monotype
created: spring 2021
size: 56 X 76 cm
reflecting the day this map was made,
'earth day walk' is composed of frottage prints from found objects and surfaces encountered in Hampstead Garden suburb,
with the walk added as a black line.
'earth day walk' is part of the online exhibition #WalkCreate hosted by Walking Publics/Walking Arts
Henrietta
technique: monotype, frottage print, imprint and hand-stitching
created: spring 2021
size: 56 X 76 cm
outlining both my movement in the landscape and a portraial of a pioneer, 'Henrietta' invites the audience to actively unveil Hampstead Garden suburb's layers of constructions.
The work shines a light on one of the founders of Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London, Henrietta Barnett (1851-1936). A social activist who worked to improve living conditions of the less privileged. As a result, Hampstead Garden Suburb was called a social and architectural experiment. The artist's map 'Henrietta' discusses my movements in the landscape in and around the north London Suburb and portrays a pioneer in their field. As an interactive map, it invites the audience to examine the suburb's various layers of construction.
In the MA interim exhibition where Henrietta was showcased, the audience was encouraged to reposition the 'missing' parts in order to reconstruct the image of a pioneer woman.
coastal map
'this bandstand'
technique: monotype, frottage print
and hand-stitching on paper
created: spring 2021
the coastal map channels the liberating feeling when a coast person is finally reunited with the coast after months in lockdown. Created on the Kent coast, during a return walk from Hythe to Folkestone, this multi-layered map holds memories and documentation of artwork encountered and the magic captured in a coastal sunset.
modern nature I, II, III & IIII
technique: frottage print, collagraph/
monotype on paper
created: summer 2021
size: 56 X 76 cm x 4
The quadriptych modern nature seeks to investigate Derek Jarman’s connection
to Hampstead Heath while considering
a retrospective view from his
Prospect Cottage by the coast, towards
and into, the woods. Monoprints include imprints of a wooden plank, once attached to my hytte in Norway.
Photo: Clare Bowes
Videos showing the process on Vimeo:
Prospect Cottage:
D, R, S & C
technique: monotype, frottage print and ink applied with a brayer
created: 2021
size: 56 X 76 cm x 4
The quadriptych explores memorialisation and how we process memories, in this case, the memory of place with all its past and present movements. The four artist’s maps were created in response to walks in the landscape I once inhabited, on the western coast of Norway.
As seen in many of my maps, I am the line that moves across the surface of the folded paper and with these four walks, in particular, the return walk was equally important.
I documented surfaces connected to each of the map’s themes by rubbing and therefore, transferring their texture to the maps. The structure of e.g. an old cairn, a cholera graveyard and the ruin of what once was a home, all transferred into ghost prints. Carefully considered was also the reason why I can create this, and any artwork, as I was able to return. In commemoration of those who never returned.
Photo: Clare Bowes
Video showing the process on Vimeo:
'When I face the horizons, a feeling of desire rises up in me. A desire, but for what? I do not know. It lives in me, I often feel it, but I cannot describe it. The horizon is the limit of the human experience we all share; a limit that I try to go beyond, an experience that I try to enlarge…'
(Bergman, 1983)
MA major project
's' (2021)
The theme of this specific map was shipwrecks along the part of the North Sea route which is located in Sveio, where I am from. Therefore, I did research on the 'Sleipner' shipwreck, the story of Magnus Eriksson's wreck with 'Mariabollen' – which is connected to 'Kongsvarden' the king's cairn – and 'DS Thor' which sank outside of Lyngholm. Each mapping process is never quite the same, but the common denominator is that I walk the specific landscape while I track my movements digitally. The red line in S is my movement, with the starting point being Ryvarden Lighthouse and further north towards Lyngholm. I both followed and did not follow the trail, and let the landscape lead the way rather than being a leader for the route. I documented the hard surfaces of stones and hills by letting a white pencil contour the beautiful structures without leaving any colours. Prior to the walk, I had coated the maps with layers of blue, each of the four maps with its dedicated shade: prussian, cyan, phthalo and ultramarine. 'S' is phthalo. The coating process involved a brayer, a printmaker's tool used for rolling out ink, typically on a glass plate in order to ink up e.g. a relief print block. In this process, I rolled directly onto the large Arches printmaking paper. Line by line, layer by layer, slowly building the horizon – the seascape.
I finalised the maps in London. By adding the red line on top of the blue and the white, they are reunited – the walk, the view and the landscape.
'S' has been exhibited as seen here as a quadriptych at the MA show, and at my solo show at KFUK-hjemmet – both in London.
And alone at Kingshill house in the Cotswolds.
images above: W. Gillingham-Sutton
images below: Å. Vikse
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
My MA major project consisted of two parts which involved an exhibition, and a written part. The dissertation 'Return to ruin' discuss the main topic of memorialisation by debating themes such as objects and our relationships to them,
place and space in relation to sharing, trauma, and pilgrimage.
BA major project
My BA major project (Honours project)
was a series of prints inspired by the stories told by Norwegian author Edvard Hoem. Through five books we journey with his ancestors through the landscape of Romsdalen and over to the new world, the prairies of America and Canada where they seek a better life.
These stories became of great importance to me,
after I had left Norway for Scotland in 2015.
Created during spring 2020, these prints will always define my memories of the UK lockdown.
threedimentional
title: tokens of hgs
created: 2023
technique/material: imprint, paper clay
A three-dimensional composition, an assemblage of clay tokens. Imprints of found objects – memories of a myriad of walks in and around Hampstead Garden Suburb. Resembling leaves in a wreath – these are casts of feathers.
The tokens are placed in another found object, a golden frame from Golders Green.
project: memorialisation
title: the sixteen
created: 2021 (part of MA major project)
technique/material: ceramics
imprint in clay
The Sixteen are 16 clay vessels with imprints on their inner walls. 16 individual cylinders invite you to view through them, in order to obtain an optimised view of the story they collectively tell. Pierced holes in the walls shine a light on the view. Enclosed are traces of ephemeral, organic objects. Placed in wet clay, they vanished in the firing process and transformed into mere ghost prints of something that once inhabited a landscape. 16 was a recurring number in my MA major project where I investigated memorialisation. I used walking and found objects, translated to the language of print, to share stories. Emphasising the nature of the circular, walks became commemorative impressions in the landscape I walked and later, imprints in my artwork. The imprints in the vessels were found objects from a return walk from Ryvarden Lighthouse and commemorate the sixteen who in November 1999 never returned.
The Sixteen was selected for the Anxiety of interdisciplinarity exhibition, part of IMPACT 12 International Printmaking Conference in Bristol 2022
image below: Steve Russel
project: hold on to
created: 2020 (part of BA)
technique/material: imprint in paper clay
pioneer women
For international women’s day 2020 I created the first portrait
of a series of pioneer women.
This will be an annual celebration of female trailblazers.
Someone always has to pave the path for others to follow,
and in this series of portrayals, I wish to highlight these
more or less famous women.
title: Lilla
created: for international women's day 2020
technique: two-layer reduction woodcut on japanese paper
size: 11,5 x 15,5 cm
Portrait of Norwegian architect Lilla Hansen,
the first woman in Norway to establish her own practice.
Amongst Lilla’s first works as an independent architect,
was the Norawegian ‘hytte’ – a wooden cottage.
This two-layer portrait is carved into an old weathered
wooden plank retrieved from my own hytte in Norway.
project: #projecthenriettabarnett
created: for international women's day 2021
technique: various
The second pioneer I chose to highlight was the founder
of Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, Henrietta Barnett(1851-1936).
After I researched this fascinating North London suburb
it became clear that the second portrait of a pioneer woman
had to be its founder, Henrietta Barnett.
So much more than a suburb’s founder, Henrietta was
a social campaigner and worked to enhance the lives
of the less privileged, mainly in Whitechapel.
When the Northern Line was extended to the Hampstead
and Golders Green area she also extended her social work.
As a result of that, Hampstead Garden Suburb has been dubbed
a social and architectural experiment.
title: henrietta barnett walk
created: 2021
technique: monotype on paper
2 variants
title: henrietta
created: spring 2021
technique: monotype, frottage print,
collagraph and hand-stitching
size: 57 X 75 cm
outlining both my movement in the landscape
and a portraial of a pioneer in her field, 'henrietta' invites the audience to actively unveil the suburb's layers of constructions.
project: pioneer woman 2022, Anni Albers
created: for international women's day 2022
technique: a combination of woodcut and gelli print
The third pioneer I chose to portray was the weaver
– the artist – Anni Albers (1899-1994)
In 2018, during my BA Communication Design studies, I wrote an essay with the title 'Always artistic, never artists', with a focus on Anni Albers and her Bauhaus career.
The broader subject of the essay was the many female students at the then modern
and innovative art school in Germany, who were never acknowledged as artists
but instead placed in the craft workshops. The men, on the other hand, were welcomed
to the art studios and thus became artists. Although this subject problematises themes such as equality and art versus craft, it raises questions that I recognise from my research on Hampstead Garden Suburb's former days, where people from different backgrounds were being introduced into the same residential area. The aim may have been to merge these despite disparate situations, but what differed was the opportunities they arrive with.
It became a matter of place versus placed.
title: anni albers (2022)
technique: woodcut and gelli print on German Büttenpapier
size: A4
pioneer woman 2023, Ellen Wilkinson
created: for international women's day 2023
technique: various
project: mapping ellen
an artist's map in four squares, discussing and exploring four eras of Ellen's life.
project: 20:20 Print Exchange
title: 'the cat and the atom'
technique: woodcut
(awaiting image)
pioneer woman 2024, Anna-Eva Bergman
Work in progress
Bæjarins Besta
On the occasion of my solo exhibition
'ég er þetta hús', Icelandic regional newspaper BB published this announcement.
Norwegian British Chamber of Commerce
On the occasion of my first solo exhibition 'å på K', NBCC published an interview with me. Read it here or click the images to enlarge.
Thank you Renate at NBCC!
In their Advent edition, local newspaper for Sveio published an article about me and my art,
'Living the artist's life in England'.
I have added a translated English version here.
Thank you Thomas at Vestavind!
