Brit Dyrnes

Terra

11 August - 18 September 2022

It takes concentration and experience to shape a material with only your hands as a tool, until you discover a state that arouses curiosity. Clay has been kneaded and dragged for thousands of years, but still artist Brit Dyrnes manages to make the material relevant. The sculptures show both controlled craftsmanship, coincidences, movement and processing. Dyrnes has stopped the work at a time that is brave and exciting. She lives and works most of her time in Surnadal on Nordmøre, surrounded by fjords and mountains. Nature comes close. This is one of the things that affects her art. The mountain’s significant power and strength, nature as artistic inspiration. Stone, clay and minerals are her challenge and material. Clay that is shaped, beaten, twisted, kneaded and pressed. Body and soul are her tools, she is in one with the possibilities of material. She goes her own way.

“Collects and observes. Wandering around. Enjoying the silence. A mountain meets me. I wonder so much. I’m moving on. Collects and finds; stone, sand, clay, and wood, and roots. New landscapes meet me. I even climb cliffs. Collects red soil. Fine sand. I mix and knead. Hands and power. Body and soul, and bark. What do I carry with me?”

Brit Dyrnes (1955) lives and works in Trondheim and in Surnadal municipality. Educated in the subject group ceramic disciplines from the Art Academy in Trondheim and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Germany 1974-79.Dyrnes has exhibited for example at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, RAM Galleri, Kraft, Hå Prestegård, Trøndelag Center for Contemporary Art, Trondheim Kunsthall and others. Purchased among others, of Trondheim Municipality, Trøndelag County Municipality, the Purchasing Fund for Norwegian Contemporary Arts and Crafts, Jugendstilsenteret & KUBE etc. In november 2022 she will have a large solo exhibition at Jugendstilsenteret & KUBE, Ålesund. In 2015, Dyrnes received the Trondheim Municipality’s cultural scholarship, the Honorary Scholarship. Since 1985, she has made 40 public decorations and in 2019 she received the Norwegian Craftsmen’s Honorary Award.

The exhibition is supported by Norwegian Artisans, Specialization scholarship.