Biography
Unni Askeland (b. 1962, Bergen) has left her mark on Norwegian art life with an uncompromising voice and a unique visual language. She is a graduate of the Kabelvåg School of Art, the Bergen National Academy of the Arts and the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts, and made her debut with the iconic work Waiting for Picasso , in which she places herself among the giants of art history.
She is known for series such as Munch Adoptions , Desire and Destruction , Big Blonde and A Lot of Water Under the Bridge . In her works she combines photography, serigraphy and painting, often with references to popular culture, identity and eroticism. Askeland has exhibited in New York, Berlin, Gothenburg, Amsterdam and Oslo, and is one of the few Norwegian artists who continuously creates debate and admiration.
A life in pictures
Her artistry ranges from expressionist painting to politically charged installations and performance art. Each series and each work bears the mark of an intensely personal engagement – whether exploring motherhood, femininity, technology or desire. Unni often stages herself in her works, building bridges between art history and the present, between the familiar and the magnificent.
She has also collaborated with artists such as Bjarne Melgaard and Ari Behn, and has left a clear mark on Norwegian cultural debate.
Selected works
Mom
Because here are also the things that one relates to more unproblematically as close things: coffee cup, cigarette, wine glass, other people, lamp, a stack of books, a pair of glasses, and the very reason for everything: Mom. But, more than anything, and what makes me think that Unni Askeland has always, first and foremost, been, is and will be a genuine romantic - here are a lot of flowers. Most strikingly, a collection of red roses, conjured up with such thick, rich paint that they most appear as something to be eaten. It is rare that I think of flowers - painted or not - as just insanely delicious, but it happens. How close any of this hits depends, as always, on the eyes that see, but I am adamant that she is a romantic. Otherwise she would never have been able to. Things can be more or less personal, but how close something actually is does not have to be a question of being in the same room. Quite the opposite, actually.
Excerpt: Trondheim 22 August 2025, Tommy Olsson
Current exhibition
the close things, DÁIDDA gallery, Oslo: 04 – 21 September 2025
the close things
When you go too far - is it near enough? Tell me what it's like when you go too far
- Wire "Former Airline" (1979)
It is not necessarily close just because it is personal, and it is not at all certain that it is personal just because it is close. But, one does not exclude the other. In an artistry like Unni Askeland's, where biographical facts regularly seep into series of images (and it is right to see them as series), the dynamic has long been established between what is so personal that you don't tell anyone about it, in combination with a visual language based on pop art's emphasis on the superficial. A platform that has proven to hold a good deal of excess. Or, to put it a little lower; drool - and I'm still talking about the end result, how much drool you choose to have in your life itself is basically unimportant as long as you still manage to expose the endless lonely night of the soul that lies behind all the desire-oriented darkness you desperately have to learn to navigate as an adult.
Excerpt: Trondheim 22 August 2025, Tommy Olsson
-
Previous exhibitions (selection)
- just me, DÁIDDA gallery, 5–15 September 2024
- Fredheim Cultural Center, March 2–17, 2024
- Gyldenpris Kunsthall Bergen, January 25 – February 3, 2024, Curated by Bjarne Melgaard
- MOVE... DÁIDDA gallery, 6–16 November 2023
-
Poetry books
- desire - my literary suicide - Unnivers Forlag // 2020
- MOVE… - Unnivers Forlag // 2023"
"
I am not a writer, I am a visual artist, and the books are an art project in themselves.” -Unni Askeland
-
Works in collections
- The National Museum
- Astrup Fearnley Museum
- Queen Sonja's private collection
- Nordea, Rogaland Art Museum and others.
Art print
Several of Unni Askeland's most famous works are now available as exclusive prints, produced in collaboration with Dáidda printlab. These are available in limited editions, signed and numbered by the artist.