Bjarne Melgaard (born 9 September 1967) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

artist based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He has been described as "one of Norway's most important artists" and, following the 2014 publicity about his sculpture ''Chair'', "the most famous Norwegian artist since

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

Life and work

Melgaard was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia to Norwegian parents, and was raised in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway. In 2009, he moved permanently to New York. Melgaard studied at the

Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts The Norwegian National Academy of Arts ( no, Statens kunstakademi) is a Norwegian Academy offering studies in the area of Fine Art. The Academy currently offers 3-year bachelor and 2-year MA programmes. The "Norwegian National Academy of the Arts" ...

Rijksakademie The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school support ...

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from 1991 to 1992 and at the Jan van Eyck Academie in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

from 1992 to 1993. Early in his career Melgaard created controversial installations referencing subversive subcultures such as S&M and heavy metal music. Currently, his practice consists of an emphasis on

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

s and

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

s, often containing text. His first show in New York was in 2000, where he exhibited sculptures of apes engaged in sex acts. In January 2014, Melgaard's artwork ''Chair'' sparked controversy. ''Chair'' is a sculpture of a bound black woman on her back with a seat cushion on her thighs, and is a reinterpretation of a similar piece by British pop artist

Allen Jones Allen Jones may refer to: *Allen Jones (Continental Congress) (1739–1798), Continental Congress delegate *Allen Jones (artist) (born 1937), British pop artist *Allen Jones (record producer) (1940–1987), American record producer * A.J. Styles (A ...

. The controversy began when Russian art socialite

Dasha Zhukova Darya "Dasha" Alexandrovna Zhukova (russian: Дарья "Даша" Александровна Жукова; born 8 June 1981) is a Russian-American art collector, businesswoman, magazine editor, and socialite. She is the founder of the Garage M ...

was photographed sitting on the cushion for a fashion website, sparking online accusations of racism under the

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

hashtag #racistchair. Guardian critic Jonathan Jones suggested that this controversy was a misunderstanding of Melgaard's intentions, and Zhukova said that the photograph of her was "out of context"; the artwork intended to be a "commentary on gender and racial politics". Melgaard himself released a statement responding to the controversy that was labelled by some writers as "bizarre". Melgaard has collaborated with Norwegian artist Sverre Koren Bjertnaes in several exhibitions. The two alternate to work on the same canvas, giving them an expression neither of the artists would achieve alone.

Notable exhibitions

2019 *''Naturally Naked'', Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow 2013 *"Bjarne Melgaard", Astrup Fearnley,

*"Ignorant Transparencies", Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York 2012 *"A House to Die In",

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

, London 2008 *''Bjarne Melgaard'',

Greene Naftali Gallery Greene Naftali is a contemporary art gallery located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Owner Carol Greene is an American art dealer and founder of Greene Naftali. She was born and raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, and received a B.A ...

, New York 2007 *''The Glamour Chase'', Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen 2006 *''Helter Helter'', Galerie Anne De Villepoix, Paris *''Les Super'', Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin *''A Weekend of Painting; A novel by Les Super'', Galerie Leo Koenig, New York 2005 *''Jasmine La Nuit'', The Horse Hospital, London *''Hallo Maybe'', Haugar Vestfold Museum, Oslo 2004 *''Tirol Transfer'', Oesterreichisches Kulturforum, Warsaw 2003 *''Skam'', Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen *''The End of The Professional Teenager'', Sketch, London 2002 *''Black Low'', MARTa Herford Museum, Hannover *''Galleria d’Arte Moderna'', Bologna 2001 *''New Heimat'', Kunstverein Frankfurt 2000 *''Sharing Exoticisms'', 5th Biennale de Lyon Melgaard appears in ''Until the Light Takes Us'', a documentary about the Norwegian

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

scene in the 1990s. The film featured in the 15th Athens International Film Festival (16–27 September 2009), screened at Danaos Cinema. In the film, an exhibition of Melgaard's in a Stockholm gallery is extensively shown, along with his comments on black/death metal.

References

External links

Find yourself a different place to die! The debate regarding Ekely: Melgaard wishes to build in Munchs immediate proximity
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melgaard, Bjarne Living people 1967 births Artists from Sydney Gay artists Norwegian contemporary artists 21st-century LGBT people