MY PAINTING “AT THIS MOMENT” ON THE FRONT PAGE OF AVA MAGAZINE

Crate with my works left my studio today, on their way to solo exhibitions in Japan and Helsinki. At the same time, one of my paintings is published on the front page of Ava magazine, just released in connection with Ava Art Festival, which will be in Osaka, Japan in May. There are many processes with the works themselves, administration, and logistics towards an exhibition, but a great enrichment to have the chance to share thoughts and feelings through my work, with audience from so different cultures, finding that we all have basically something in common, whether we are Norwegian, Finnish , Sami, Japanese, etc. Thanks to AVA Galleria, which I have collaborated with for several years.

ARTICLE ABOUT “SEAHORSE” IN “UTEMILJØ” MAGAZINE March 2018

Happy and proud that the magazine “Utemiljø”, in its latest edition 2/2018 on the theme of Culture and Park concerning our environments, writes an article about my lighting sculpture “Seahorse” at Slemmestad Brygge As, and comments its function as a link between nature, buildings and people.“Utemiljø” is a magazine adressing landscape architects, urban planners, entrepreneurs, and everyone else who is interested in sustainable architecture, environment, investments in green areas, outdoor areas and activities for people.With each task in the public space, I am concerned with finding every place`s distinctive character and emphasize through a broader perspective. A main goal is that the artwork becomes a natural meeting place for people in everyday life. “Seahorse” was initiated during the Factory Light Festival and contributing to the production is Frode Stenberg As, FLOS Norway AS Vanpee, Plexon. Here is the link: http://www.utemiljonytt.no/2018/03/28/lysende-sjohest-stiger-opp-av-havet/

LIGHTING SCULPTURE “SEAHORSE” RISES FROM THE OCEAN

After a long process, the 5 m high lighting sculpture “SeaHorse” is hoisted by crane car and transported to the sea where it is mounted in its proper element. It was inaugurated September 15th at the Factory Light Festival, at Slemmestad Brygge. Now you can experience it playing with the sea and the sky, natural and integrated light at all hours! As the photos show, the dusk light and in the evening give a lot of exciting shades, recommended. The iridescent paint applied in thin layers makes the lighting sculpture become three-dimensional by picking color shades from the natural and daylight spectrum. The lighting scenarios can also be controlled by the audience!

ESSAY BY ART CRITIC LARS ELTON

Calina Pandele Yttredal / Gallery Ava, Helsinki / Catalogue text 2016

REPORT FROM PARALLEL REALITIES

When an artist is confronted with the landscape, her possibilities are boundless. Both in Norwegian and Finnish art the depiction of landscape is of great, historical importance. For some that is a problem. For the Norwegian artist Calina Pandele Yttredal tradition is a platform that allows her to make art quite different from anybody else’s.

 Calina Pandele Yttredal is an artist unlike any other. Her pictures may seem realistic and “common”, but that is a notion which appears only at first glance. Although – the close to realistic illusion in her paintings make you wonder – exactly where might this waterfall or that glacier be? Her pictures are of a sort that makes you think that you have seen them before. It is easy to be enticed into believing that there is an easy way into these pictures. That you understand them without making an effort. You could not be more wrong.Pictures are pictures. They are not reality. There is little doubt that Calina Pandele Yttredal’s pictures invite us into an imaginary world. Her paintings are inviting because they depict something that is recognizable and fathomable. Still, these landscapes are not to be found in the real world. They are “possible landscapes”, possibilities that are constructed in the artist’s head. They are made up of thousands of pictures that she has accumulated during the years. Out of this cloud of images she constructs her own pictures, her own landscapes. They are built on a mixture of memories, experiences, paintings, photos and real landscapes that she has visited.The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” The river is in the same place as last time you saw it, but the water that is streaming past you is not the same as last time. In the same way as this simple truth, Calina Pandele Yttredal’s possible landscapes point to the fact that nature (and reality) is an everlasting process of change. This recognition leads to the conclusion that all the experiences you have must be revised. When you are confronted with nature’s everlasting modus of change, you have to realize that you have no guaranty that what you learned and experienced yesterday is valid today. You are doomed always to question what you have learned already. Calina Pandele Yttredal’s paintings are freezing time. But the concrete images are first and foremost a synthesis, or a compilation, of many possible experiences. This simple recognition is part of the fascination.The fact that Calina Pandele Yttredal’s “possible landscapes” are staged does not make them less valid. From my perspective her pictures becomes a symptom or an image of the fragile balance that exists in the interaction between man and nature. We know that the climate is changing; we know that the greenhouse effect is valid; we know that small changes in temperature have enormous consequences; and we know that natural disasters are increasing by the numbers. We also know that it is difficult to realize the seriousness of those phenomena because you don’t see and experience them on a daily basis. Therefore it is easy to understand that we have become immune to the threat of climate change.In order to be aware we need to be reminded repeatedly of the manmade threat that manifest itself in the hidden forces of nature. It is this imminent force that lies as an undertow in Calina Pandele Yttredal’s pictures. They present us with “possible landscapes” that seem idyllic, but always contains the possibility of a disaster. The glacier may calf and fall into the sea and make a huge wave, the grotto may overflow; the river may exceed its limits.Recently she has had two exhibitions, in New York and Oslo, under the title «Through Possible Landscapes». With the exhibition in Helsinki she takes a step further towards an investigation of the imminent threat of natural disasters. For the first time she paints the results of the disaster. Calina Pandele Yttredal places us in the middle of chaos. But she does it with an unmistakeable zest for the inherent beauty of these phenomena. Whether it is “just” an enclosed cave or the towering waves in a storm, her motifs encloses the beauty of the (nearby) catastrophe.In the cathedrals of the medieval ages mankind got a revolutionary, new experience. With the help of radically new principles of architectural constructions, and new methods of making and mounting coloured glass, the architects and artists of its time were able to create giant glass windows that told the history of the Bible in pictures. The glass paintings depicted God’s greatness; they visualized the power of God’s light. The new technique became an important element in the struggle to behold the belief in God among the people of the medieval ages. The lucidity of the glass became a part of the religious fascination.Today we may recognize the same fascination when confronted with Calina Pandele Yttredal’s paintings. She works with them like few other painters, and she works relentlessly in order to make light an active participant in her pictures. Not only does she paint in thin layers, one upon the other, in order to make them translucent. She also applies different media in order to create special effects. She uses paint that is matt, shiny, opaque and translucent. She applies, among others, interfering and iridescent paints that delivers effects close to the mother of pearl-like effect you can observe on a bird’s feather, an insect’s or a butterfly’s wings. Depending on the angle you watch Calina Pandele Yttredal’s paintings from, you will experience differences in the surface, in the way light is reflected and how colour is presented. This experience make her pictures stand up against the wear of time, and it contributes to the fascination that makes them into an expression of the necessity of change.A part of what makes Calina Pandele Yttredal’s paintings extraordinary is her skilled approach to highly specialized, painterly techniques. More important is her ability to make hostile and harsh environments seem inviting and seductive. The combination of the two manifests an artist with special abilities. Recently Calina Pandele Yttredal has taken up again the technique of pastel that she performs with both pastel chalk and -pencil. The special, tactile quality of the pastel ads an extra dimension to her newest pictures. In this way she expands her artistic realm.That it is the people of Helsinki who are the first to experience the result of this development is not purely coincidental. When the invitation from AVA Galleria to exhibit in Helsinki came, it took Calina Pandele Yttredal back to a period that was important for her artistic development. Years ago she was awarded a grant and stay in one of the studios at Nordiskt Konstcentrum, Suomenlinna. Her meeting with Finnish art and culture, and with other Nordic artists whom she later exhibited together with, gave her strong resonances to places and landscapes that she, from early childhood, had seen through her inner eye. Since then she has tried to recreate those memories through her works.Therefore this exhibition is important in and for Calina Pandele Yttredal’s development. Her paintings – and now also her pastels – exists in the chaotic realm where idyll and catastrophe are two sides of the same experience. The span between personal recognition and common belief are crucial in order to experience and understand her pictures. The complexity of the many issues that pieces together our world make Calina Pandele Yttredal balance on a knife’s edge, in order to exceed the threshold of all those obstacles that are immanent in our daily struggle. Her pictures are beautiful to watch, but they are also packed with meaning that is not obvious to all.I have followed Calina Pandele Yttredal during a long period of time. During the last years her efforts have turned into a new assurance that is obviously present in her pictures. The self-consciousness that these pictures radiate is of a sort that gives me and the rest of the audience a possibility to think, reflect and act. Calina Pandele Yttredal’s art is beautiful, but it is also mysterious and meaningful. The best thing is that her art raises both aesthetic and ethical questions for us to discuss and wonder about. Enjoy.LARS ELTON Lars Elton is a Oslo-based, Norwegian freelance journalist, critic and editior. He is the art- and architecture critic of the daily newspaper Dagsavisen. As a freelancer he writes about art and cultural subjects in a wide variety of publications.  

Exhibition in Helsinki September - October 2016, Opening reception

“The invitation from AVA Galleria to exhibit in their gallery in Helsinki, brings me back to a period in my life that meant a lot to my artistic development. Years ago I was awarded a grant and stay in one of the studios at Nordiskt Konstcentrum, Suomenlinna, as Norwegian representative. The meeting with Finnish art and culture, also with other Nordic artists whom I later exhibited together with, gave a strong resonance to places and landscapes that I, from early childhood, had seen through my inner eye, and since then tried to recreate through my works.” Calina Pandele Yttredal.

In 2016, the Norwegian visual artist Calina Pandele Yttredal presented her solo exhibition "Report from Parallel Realities" at the AVA Galleria, Helsinki. The Norwegian ambassador to Finland Mr. Åge B. Grutle enhanced in his opening speech, the good cultural relations between Finland and Norway and his hope to further develop this contact. 2018 celebrates 100 years of diplomatic relations between Norway and Finland, and we follow the event through Calina Pandele Yttredal's new solo exhibition at our gallery, entitled "At this Moment". This exhibition has also been shown in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition in Helsinki has got the addition "Part II", which is partly due to the fact that the artist has expanded the theme with some more works. In this way AVA Galleria and the artist intend to lift the message across borders and focus on thoughts about the time we live in. This also alludes to the theme of celebrating Finland's 100th Independence in 2017, which was "We Are Together".

The exhibition's title "At this Moment" is inspired by the Japanese term "Mono no aware" which expresses the essence of our existence, referring to the perishability of all things, an awareness that increases the importance and intensity of the present moment and emphasizes that we are all bound together in one or another way.

The importance of nature is a common issue for both Finland, Japan and Norway. Finland celebrates each year "nature`s day",  and has seven national symbols chosen by the people from nature, associated with Finnish mythology, traditions and popular culture. Yttredal finds interesting to look at themes we find in myths and legends through today's issues. If the population of bees and bumblebees were to decrease or, ultimately, disappear, may our livelihoods disappear too, when much of the food we eat is dependent on insect pollination. The swan is another threatened animal and a nature symbol for Finland, which occurs as well in Finnish folklore and culture, from the national epic Kalevala to the work of composer Jean Sibelius. The Sami culture, which is closely linked to nature, regards nature as if it possesses a soul, life and personality, a way of thinking we also find in Japanese culture. When focusing in this exhibition on the moment of light, of movement, on the moment just before something is going to happen, is to open for further dialogue across countries and cultures.

Exhibition in Helsinki September 20 - October 9, 2016

Welcome to the opening of the exhibition REPORT FROM PARALLEL REALITIESTirsdag / Tuesday 20.09 at 6 pmThe Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki will open the exhibition.The artist will be presentGalleriets åpningstider / opening hours:Tue - Fri 11am - 6pm,Sat - Sun 12pm - 4pmhttp://avagalleria.com/events/calina-pandele-yttredal/

THE UNIVERSE INSIDE THE GLASS BALL

The glass ball I created at Hadeland Glassverk is compact with air bubbles. As the largest compact glass ball the famous glass factory has created, with its 26 cm in diameter and 22 kg, it had to stay for more than two months in the cooling furnace. It is clear and reflects the light and landscape around, while providing access to a whole inner world. It acts like a prism and a magnifying glass, a micro - macro universe. Illuminated by both natural light and with changing Led lighting scenarios, it is in constant flux as part of lighting sculpture "Wind-Eye", permanently located on a viewpoint at Kunstpark Tranøy, in Hamsuns rike.

Group Show at Gulden Kunstverk Gallery, 23.01 - 7.02.2016

Group exhibition on the theme “Renewel”.

Participation at groupshows december 2015

Participation at group show Kunstnerforbundet Gallery December 2015

Participation at group show Tegnerforbundet Gallery December 2015

solo exhibition at Arctandria Gallery, Oslo 30.10 - 15.11.2015

“Through Possible Landscapes” part 2, in connection with “Through Possible Landscapes” part 1, in New York

OPENING RECEPTION AT ARCTANDRIA GALLERY OCTOBER 31 2015

Et stort takk til kunstkritiker Lars Elton for den flotte talen han holdt på åpningen av min separatutstilling i går, 31 oktober 2015, i Galleri Arctandria. Many thanks to art critic Lars Elton, for the great speech he held yesterday october 31, at the opening of my solo exhibition in Gallery Arctandria, Oslo.

SOLO SHOW AT ARCTANDRIA GALLERI OSLO, OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 15

Stort oppmøte på åpningen av min separatutstilling i Galleri Arctandria igår, lørdag 31 oktober 2015. Happy and grateful for large audience at the opening reception of my solo show at Arctandria Gallery, Oslo, yesterday october 31.

ARTIFACT GALLERY SOLO SHOW 9-27 SEPTEMBER, ESSAY BY ART CRITIC

Rapture through Natural Transcription in Paintings ofCalina Pandele YttredalBy John AustinIt has long been true in all painting that a heightened sense of expressive contrast in any work deepens the emotional range of the artist`s efforts. This is certainly apt as the viewer contemplates the emotional range and the optical sumptuousness of Calina Pandele Yttredal`s paintings exploring the relationship between humans and nature.The tension that is felt between color and form is a driving force in her work but this charge of energy is always applied with nuance as well as directness. While color is a principal player in the artist`s work, the artist is particulary sensitive to the application of masses of hue and tone. Overall, we see the artist`s characteristic use of color with deliberation and energy in order for it to exude the maximal amount of vibrancy and presence.This overridding quotient of vitality stems from Pandele Yttredal's authoritative capacity to infuse each painterly effort with a breakdown of figure-ground relationships. There are some figures in her representational works where dissolution is kept masterfully at bay and purposefully so. In some of her more purely landscape paintings the artist seems to be indwelling within a ludic domain which suffuses the beholder. There is a process of luring the viewer into an associational game within these aesthetic efforts, of attempting to lead the viewer into identifying representational elements within the frame. The overallness of Pandele Yttredal`s work leads us beholders to participate in its history as materialized consciousness. We are invited to suspend disbelief and to become involved, even aroused at the impact that each picture has on the eye of the viewer.The artist states: “At my first solo exhibition in New York, at Artifact Gallery, I show a new series paintings, "Through Possible Landscapes". In a time when we follow nature's fluctuations with great excitement, when a tiny disturbance of temperature balance can have serious consequences for the planet and our lives, we question our existence on earth and our relationship to nature. We see man walking from burning lava landscapes to frozen landscapes (“Ice and Lava”), or linger on the edge of the cliff, feeling the undertow from the falls (“At the Gorge”), alone with the forces of nature, in search of a safe place to be (“A Place on Earth?”). Often inspired by the wild Nordic landscapes, even in a seemingly idyllic fairytale landscape (“The Source”), it lurks an underlying sense of mystery or fear of the unknown, of what is to come.”The suggestive presence of the artist, adds the component of connotation to each painting. This charged nuance allows each image to transcend the mere space and time component which it records. Each work, while recalling with almost ethnographic-like quality the cultural ethos of each geographic territory is also highly aware of its cultural code-making effect and its convention. The result is a project which defines space and time. The place is a dual one: it is where the ethos both of a culture or a region is made manifest as well as being inscribed with the personalized intensity of its maker, that is Calina Pandele Yttredal herself.The most evident aspect of this work is the remarkable freedom the artist is capable of unleashing. The second aspect is the careful registration of marks and pattering that coalesce into an overall image of dignity and power. The imagistic aspect of the artist`s work is furthermore coupled with an intense application of energetic paint strokes – each one carefully calibrated to bring out a residual image which seems to slowly make its way to the surface of the pictorial plane. It is the dynamic tension and its release that makes each image vibrate with a stillness and density.Looking at Calina Pandele Yttredal's work in order to identify their various notations and marks, an attempt to "read" them for their near associational messages might be time well spent for some people. And yet it would be far more pleasurable and satisfying to see each work as a living entity outside of the realm of guessing games. The heartfelt ambiguity which is at the core of each work is part of the conceptual attitude that infuses the artist's overall project. Here the real and imagined, the known and the unknown co-exists as does the unseen with the seen, the visible and the invisible, the discernible with the evanescent.Fundamentally, the mysteriousness aspect of each work is the psychic residue left between the ineffable distance of conscious reality and unconscious processes of recording the beauty of Calina Pandele Yttredal´s painterly application. This is the gift which this artist so provocatively brings to the world and it stems from a rare discernment and the capacity to see beyond sight`s everyday parameters.John Austin is an art critic based in Manhattan. 

ARTIFACT GALLERY, NEW YORK, OPENING RECEPTION SEPTEMBER 9, 6 PM

Great opening reception of my solo show "Through Possible Landscapes" September 9,  2015 at Artifact Gallery, New York. Among the guests, pleased to welcome cultural officer at the Norwegian General Consulate in New York, Ingrid Moe, my friend Kathy Goodell, visual artist and professor at State University of New York at New Paltz. She attended the opening reception together with a group of her students. Great to meet again my friend Daniela C. Kamilliotis, SVP of Design at Ralf Lauren and her husband Thanos.

SOLO SHOW AT ARTIFACT GALLERY, NEW YORK 9 – 27 SEPTEMBER 2015

ARTIFACT is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of paintings by Calina Pandele Yttredal on September 9-27, 2015.  An opening reception for the artist will be held on Wednesday September 9, from 6 to 8 PM.

 It has long been true in all painting that a heightened sense of expressive contrast in any work deepens the emotional range of the artist's efforts. This is certainly apt as the viewer contemplates the emotional range and the optical sumptuousness of Calina Pandele Yttredal's paintings exploring the relationship between humans and nature.

This overridding quotient of vitality stems from Pandele Yttredal's authoritative capacity to infuse each painterly effort with a breakdown of figure-ground relationships. There are some figures in her representational works where dissolution is kept masterfully at bay and purposefully so. In some of her more purely landscape paintings the artist seems to be indwelling within a ludic domain which suffuses the beholder. There is a process of luring the viewer into an associational game within these aesthetic efforts, of attempting to lead the viewer into identifying representational elements within the frame.

The artist states: “At my first solo exhibition in New York, at Artifact Gallery, I show a new series paintings, "Through Possible Landscapes". In a time when we follow nature's fluctuations with great excitement, when a tiny disturbance of temperature balance can have serious consequences for the planet and our lives, we question our existence on earth and our relationship to nature. We see man walking from burning lava landscapes to frozen landscapes (“Ice and Lava”), or linger on the edge of the cliff, feeling the undertow from the falls (“At the Gorge”), alone with the forces of nature, in search of a safe place to be (“A Place on Earth?”). Often inspired by the wild Nordic landscapes, even in a seemingly idyllic fairytale landscape (“The Source”), it lurks an underlying sense of mystery or fear of the unknown, of what is to come.”

The suggestive presence of the artist, adds the component of connotation to each painting. This charged nuance allows each image to transcend the mere space and time component which it records. Each work, while recalling with almost ethnographic-like quality the cultural ethos of each geographic territory is also highly aware of its cultural code-making effect and its convention. The result is a project which defines space and time. The place is a dual one: it is where the ethos both of a culture or a region is made manifest as well as being inscribed with the personalized intensity of its maker, that is Calina Pandele Yttredal herself.

Looking at Calina Pandele Yttredal's work in order to identify their various notations and marks, an attempt to "read" them for their near associational messages might be time well spent for some people. And yet it would be far more pleasurable and satisfying to see each work as a living entity outside of the realm of guessing games. The heartfelt ambiguity which is at the core of each work is part of the conceptual attitude that infuses the artist's overall project. Here the real and imagined, the known and the unknown co-exists as does the unseen with the seen, the visible and the invisible, the discernible with the evanescent. 

Calina Pandele Yttredal lives and works in Oslo, Norway since 1977. She started her art studies at early age, and she has
 an extensive classical artistic background. She explores the relationship between light, colour, and space in her paintings, lighting sculptures, public art commissions and site-specific installations.

INNVIELSE AV MIN 9,5 LANG UTSMYKNING PÅ "LÅVENS" GLASSFASADE VED KIRKENES SNOWHOTEL, 14 APRIL 2015 / INAUGURATION OF MY 9,5 M LONG PUBLIC ART ON THE FACADE OF "LÅVEN", BY KIRKENES SNOWHOTEL, 14TH OF APRIL 2015

 Ankomst Kirkenes, mottatt av Ronny Østrem. Innkvartert i "Cabin", spesialdesignet for Snowhotel i samarbeid med sveitsisk arkitektfirma.   Kåre Tannvik og jeg presenterer utviklingen av prosjektet for publikum som har møtt opp. Sør-Varanger avis og NRK Finnmark er tilstede. TV innslag fra Nordnytt ble sendt 15 april.      

DELTAKELSE PÅ BELA BIENNALEN I RIO DE JANEIRO/INVITED TO PARTICIPATE AT BELA BIENNIAL, RIO DE JANEIRO

Riode Janeiro er vert for BELA Biennalen for kunst, med kunstnere fra Europa og Sør-Amerika. 90 deltagende kunstnere, fra: Finland, Sverige, Norge, Danmark, Tyskland, Frankrike, Brasil og Argentina. Blant arrangører er AVA Galleria, basert iHelsinki /Finland), ICNBF (The Cultural Institute for co-operation between Brazil and Nordic Countries ) og L.Bumachar Business Consultant. Biennalen har osgå fått støtte fra Brasils kulturministeriet, finsk ambassade, norsk og tysk konsulat, dansk kulturinstitutt.

INTERVJU REPORTASJE TV BRASIL/ INTERVIEW REPORTAGE TV BRAZIL

Lenke til innslag sendt på TV Brasil med intervju av meg og tre andre deltakende kunstnere på BELA Biennalen i Rio de Janeiro. Det er ialt 90 deltakende kunstnere fra Europa, Nordiske land og Sør-Amerika / Link to reportage on TV Brazil with interview of me and three other participating artists at BELA Biennial in Rio de Janeiro. There are 90 participating artists from Europe, the Nordic countries and South America:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qN0LRSSdCo

BELA BIENNALEN IN RIO DE JANEIRO, VERNISSAGE AT MUSEU HISTORICO NACIONAL JANUARY 8th, 2015

Flott vernissage på Bela Biennalen i Rio de Janeiro, på Museu Historico Nacional 8 januar 2015 / Great opening reception at Museu Historico Nacional, January 8th 2015

Et høydepunkt å være intervjuet av TV Brasil / great to be interviewed by TV Brazil, og hyggelig sammenkomst med kuratorer og kunstnere/ Nice gathering with curators and artists

MIAMI ART WEEK DECEMBER 3-7 2014

3-7 Desember 2014 Miami Art Week, med over 20 Art Fairs i Midtown Miami og på Miami Beach. Jeg deltar også iår med maleri og et slidesshow, på Spectrum Miami, i Wynwood Arts District. Spectrum Miami er juryert, og jeg representeres av Contemporary Art Network (booth #613). I fjor deltok jeg på Red Dot Art Fair, også i Midtown. Kunst fra hele verden, design og sommer..

December 3-7 2014 Miami Art Week, with over 20 Art Fairs in Midtown Miami and Miami Beach. I participate also this year with painting and a slideshow at Spectrum Miami, Wynwood Arts District. Spectrum Miami is juried and I am represented by Contemporary Art Network (booth # 613). Last year I participated at Red Dot Art Fair, also in Midtown. Art from around the world, design and summer ..