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 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.
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
GRANTS
Vestland Fylkeskommune Kunstnarstipend 2024 / Vestland County Council's Artist grant 2024
BOARDS
2025– Harding Puls Board member – Social Media manager
2025– Open House Bergen Arbeidsgruppen – Graphic Designer
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
2025(April/May) KUNSTNARHUSVÆRET Hardanger – Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2024(Sept) ArtsIceland Residency, Ísafjörður, Iceland
2023-24 AA2A Artist Residency, York St John University, York, UK
SOLO
2024 Ég er þetta hús, Edinborgarhúsið, Ísafjörður, ICE
2023 å på K 2.0, KFUK-Hjemmet/The Norwegian YWCA, London, UK
2022 å på K, KFUK-Hjemmet/The Norwegian YWCA, London, UK
2021 part of: SubPlot Folkestone Fringe, Oxfam Books & Music, Folkestone, UK
GROUP
2024(-25) Vinter Marked, Kiosken Studio, Bergen, NO
2024 Off the wall and off the table 2024, Galleri Salhus, Tekstilindustrimuseet Salhus, NO
2024 Open Summer Exhibition 2024, Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK
2024 Endless Forms, Most Beautiful, Members' Exhibition, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2024 YSJUAA2A2024, End of Residency Exhibition, York St John University, York, UK
2024 Northumberland Now, Woodhorn Museum, Ashington, UK
2023 Gathering, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2023 Home • Hoem, Pop-up at The Vessel, York St John University, York, UK
2023 Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity 2.0, Alison Richard Building, University of Cambridge, UK
2023 Northern Summer Exhibition, Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle, UK
2023 Nye medlemmer, Norske Grafikere/The Association of Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo, NO
2023 One and Another, Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
2023 Inspirational Women Artists, GHT/A Space Arts, Southampton, UK
2022-23 These are Our Treasures, (selected object/tresure) Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2022-23 Gallagher & Turner’s Open Exhibition, Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK
2022 Pop-up Exhibition, Sjømannskirken Aberdeen, UK
2022 Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity, part of IMPACT 12 International Printmaking Conference, Bristol, UK
2022 Ossuary, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2022 Mind - be here, present/be here now, Kingshill House, Gloucestershire, UK
2021–22 Uig Open 2021/22, [Online], Hulabhaig, Outer Hebrides, UK
2021 #WalkCreate Gallery, [Online], University of Glasgow et al.
2021 Wish I Was There, touring: London Waterloo Station, Reading Station,
Liverpool Lime Station, Leeds Station, Glasgow Central Station, all: UK
2020–21 Teesside Print Prize 20, Middlesbrough, UK
2020 The Resilient Self II, Espacio Gallery, London, UK
2020 Uig Open 2020: Re-imagined, [Online], Hulabhaig, Uig, Outer Hebrides, UK
PRESENTATIONS/WORKSHOPS held
2025(june) Creative Workshop, Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øystese, NO
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 attended
2025 CLAY PLAY w/Råbrent, Permanenten, KODE, Bergen, NO
2024 Multi Process: Paper Making and Threedimentional Print w/Susan Wright, WY 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
ég er þetta hús
Solo exhib., Edinborgarhúsið
Ísafjörður, Iceland
26/9 – 29/9/2024
project title: mapping Ísa
AiR ArtsIceland Ísafjörður
September 2024
Photos: Mitchell van Eijk
project title: mapping Anna-Eva
2023-ongoing
Image credit:
Clare Bowes, Amy D’Agorne, Å. Vikse,
Fondation Hartung-Bergman, Jo Wilson
Artist's map (2024)
Monoprint: Monotype, frottage and handcolouring on paper
56 x 76 cm
Shown at
End of residency* show
Group exhibition, York St John University, York, UK
20/6 – 27/6/2024
*AA2A AiR at York St John University,
the Academic year 2023-24
the Artist's map during development
on the site of Anna-Eva Bergman's studio in Antibes,
the south of France. March 2024
to the left: same spot, Anna-Eva and her dogs
rot zweimal (2024-2025)
Artist's map, diptych
Monoprint: Monotype, frottage and handcolouring on paper
65 x 50 cm (x2)
Sites: Lofthus, Ullensvang, Norway
Villa Hartung Bergman, Antibes, France
bakom I, II, III (2023)
Artist's map, triptych
Monoprint: found objects' imprints printed in layers on Japanese paper.
30,5 x 45,5 cm (x3)
Shown at
å på K 2.0
Solo show, KFUK-Hjemmet London, London, UK
25/11 - 4/12/2023
ode til A
(blå og raud variant) (2023)
Artist's map, diptych
Monoprint on Japanese paper
30,5 x 45,5 cm (x2)
Available through
Norske Grafikere, Oslo.
project title:
mapping Northumberland 2022-24
Image credit:
Clare Bowes, Amy D’Agorne, Norske Grafikere
Artist's maps low & cygnus
End of residency* show
Group exhibition, York St John University, York, UK
20/6 – 27/6/2024
*AA2A AiR at York St John University,
the Academic year 2023-24
Artist's maps aln & alna
Nye medlemmer* exhibition
Group exhibition, Galleri Norske Grafikere, Oslo, NO
6/7 – 12/8/2023
*the New members of the Society of Norwegian Printmakers'
annual group show
'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
more on this project here
artist's maps
2021-ongoing
angst
earth day walk
Henrietta
coastal map
'this bandstand'
modern nature I, II, III & IIII
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
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 project
2021
'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
BA Honours project
2020
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.
press
Bæjarins Besta
On the occasion of my solo exhibition
'ég er þetta hús', Icelandic regional newspaper BB published this article
Norwegian British Chamber of Commerce
On the occasion of my first solo exhibition 'å på K', NBCC published an interview with me. Read here
or click images to enlarge
In their Advent edition, local newspaper for Sveio published the article about me and my art,
'Living the artist's life in England'.
English version here
