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ABOUT

Lise Bjerkan

I am drawn to materials that resist control and refuse perfection. Thick layers of paint, charcoal, ink, torn paper, scratched lines, and stitched fragments.

 

I am not seeking the flawless, but the alive. The friction and agency of these materials leave traces of something vulnerable, unpredictable, and constantly in motion.

At the same time, I am fascinated by photography’s ability to hold onto fleeting moments, glances, atmospheres, landscapes, and building facades.

My works emerge in the meeting between these expressions — in the space between clarity and ambiguity, between what remains and what crumbles, is scraped away, or concealed.

 

From this tension arise images that carry traces of memories, places, and lived experience.

I do not seek to provide definitive answers. Rather, I aim to create open spaces where the viewer’s own memories, associations, and experiences can unfold.

Artist Bio

Lise Bjerkan is an Oslo-based visual artist working at the intersection of painting, photography and text. Through layered, material-driven works, she explores themes related to place, memory, identity and human experience.

Her works often combine photographic fragments with painting, charcoal, text and found materials, moving between the figurative and the abstract.

Bjerkan studied fine art at Nydalen Kunstskole and photography at Oslo Fotokunstskole, and also holds a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in social anthropology. This interdisciplinary background informs her artistic practice, which is concerned with how people navigate emotionally and sensorially through memories, places and shifting experiences.

Alongside her artistic work, she has extensive experience in communication and text-based practices.

Exhibitions & Interviews

This artist stitches torn book pages & charcoal into her paintings ┃Lise Bjerkan

Artist Interview, 22nd May 2026

Open Call for Artists

Little Treasures

Group Exhibition, 1 - 31 May 2026

Sagene Samfunnshus, Oslo, Norway

Torshov kunst- og kulturforening

Spring Tide - a new wave of art in Tooting

Magan Gallery, London

Group Exhibition, 22 May - 7 June 2025

Curated by: Agnieszka Lokaj

Host: Gosia Oldakowski-Pacak 

Vestfold Art Fair

Group Exhibition, 17 - 21 April 2025

Tønsberg, Norway

Curated by: Kristine Ravndal Gabrielli

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