Sørlandet Art Museum (SKMU) has received yet another donation of 80 million NOK (8.18 million EUR) from investor Nicolai Tangen, through the AKO Foundation, towards the realisation of Kunstsilo, a new museum in Kristiansand. In addition to this, the AKO Foundation issued a guarantee for public revenue of 5 million NOK (511,000 EUR) a year for the first five years of operation. The new donation was given after the total cost for the development of the museum was set at 610 million NOK (62.4 million EUR) –around 80 million more than the early estimate. Reidar Fuglestad, director of SKMU, said in a press release: “It has been crucial to ensure a thorough review, to remove uncertainty about the numbers. The final budget includes a sound safety margin, which has been important in order to create security for the project in the years to come.” Once completed, the new museum will occupy 3,300 square metres spread over three floors in the old silo in the Kristiansand harbour. Kunstsilo is expected to open to the public in 2022.
Danish exhibition of political art sparks controversy
The exhibition The Political Art, which is set to open on 7 June, two days after the general election in Denmark, has created controversy on the small island of Læsø. A group of artists and curators threaten to withdraw from another exhibition at Læsø Kunsthalle this fall if two controversial artists are not excluded from the show, as they do not wish to be associated with them. All this according to the general manager of the Kunsthalle, Jon Eirik Lundberg. Lundberg does not, however, wish to reveal the names of the artists – neither the ones who have protested, nor the ones they want removed. In an interview with Danish radio P1, he explained that he withheld this information “because we are in the midst of an election campaign.” Lundberg does not want to remove the still-nameless artists from the exhibition: “These reactions are not rooted in the works, because no one knows what works we will show. It is only the names that light the spark. I think that is what you call prejudice.” The exhibition features thirteen artists, including: international artists Ai Weiwei and Banksy; as well as Swedish artists Lars Vilks and Dan Park. The latter has several times been convicted for ethnic agitation. Also Danish artist and parliamentary candidate for the far-right party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), Uwe Max Jensen, is featured in the show.
Five new teachers to the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo
The Academy of Fine Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts has employed five new professors for a fixed six-year period: Tris Vonna Michell, Liv Bugge, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Pedro Gómez-Egaña, and Melissa Gordon. Vonna Michell, Bugge, and Ramm Fortunhave already been associated with the school. Vonna Michell, who has been an associate professor for the past three years, was hired as a professor working within the field of sound and lens- and time-based formats. Bugge has been a PhD-fellow, and Ramm Fortun, a teacher. Both will take up positions as associate professors: Bugge within the field of sculpture and installation, and Ramm Fortun within the field of sculpture. Joining them, Gómez-Egaña will be a professor within sculpture and installation; he comes from a similar position at Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen. Finally, Melissa Gordon has been hired as a professor with expertise in painting and drawing. The new teachers will all start mid-August 2019.
Swedish gallery receives award at Art Basel
At the opening of Art Basel on Wednesday 12 June Galerie Nordenhake will receive The Federation of European Art Gallery Association’s (FEAGA) Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award was created to draw attention to the work of galleries and to emphasise their importance for art. This is the first time that a Swedish gallery will receive the award. Claes Nordenhake opened his first gallery in Malmö in 1976. It was an exhibition of paintings by Olle Baertling, an artist who is still represented by the gallery. In 1986, the gallery moved to Stockholm, and in 2000 opened a second space in Berlin. Last year, Galerie Nordenhake added a third spacein Mexico City.
