TORBJØRN KVASBØ

Few ceramic artists – Norwegian or international - can list a production so extensive and strong in quality as Torbjørn Kvasbø. Since he started his artistic exploration in the 1970s, he has developed to become one of the worlds leading ceramic artists, much because of his tireless study of the many possibilities and qualities of clay as a material.

In younger years he was very influenced by the British ceramic tradition. This was a period where large political and esthetical conflicts appeared between the applied arts and handiwork with the latter insisted on disentangling itself from the more dogmatic tradition of Scandinavia Design, with its ”beautiful everyday objects for common people”.

Kvasbø chose to let the clays material qualities join up with a more existentialist stance, and went searching for an expression accentuating human emotions and which also gives clear associations a purely humanistic sense – as an example, the relationship between body and ceramics is brought to distinction through the choice of forms and how he processes the surface.

The technological possibilities are also explored in depth within Kvasbø’s artistic progress. The kiln and the firing of clay have been a line he has pursued with longer periods of study in for instance Japan, where he studied old and traditional modes of firing. He has also built an anagama kiln in his own studio in Venabygd, where he lives and works.

This exhibition project is based on old vase forms, collected from the long history of Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik. The extensive work includes over 2300 units, combined to form a larger and complicated installation piece. The project thus enters a mode of conversation with the porcelains factory’s unique design history. The vase form is one of our oldest applied forms, and is known from the earliest times of human history. As far as every culture through the ages have taken it to use, partly because it is practical, partly because it presents a plethora of esthetical possibilities.

At the public opening November 1., Kvasbø will just have started the mounting and the public are given a rare opportunity to follow the completion of the installation on a day-to-day basis.

This project is the main exhibition feature for Kunsthall Grenland and is porcelain workshop 1400 grader, for 2017.

The project is presented as a collaboration with Porsgrunds Porselensfabrik. Kvasbøs assistant in the development and production of the vases has been Stine Hartvigsen, who holds a Master in Medium and Material based Art from Oslo National Academy of the Arts.