Format at Ceramic Brussels 2025
22-26 January 2025
Our presentation at Ceramic Brussels 2025 consists of three ceramic artists representing the large variety in both the Norwegian and Nordic ceramic field. The carefully selected artists reflect the different tendencies within the unique and celebrated Nordic craft scene. Their work varies in techniques, ceramic materials and artistic approach, and they distinguish themselves with exceptional quality pieces. These are established artists with high quality unique objects with a striking artistic expression.
Format Oslo’s presentation at Ceramic Brussels 2025 consists of ceramic artists Torbjørn Kvasbø, Pauliina Pöllänen and Eyvind Solli Andreassen.
Torbjørn Kvasbø
Torbjørn Kvasbø (b. 1953, Norway) is one of the most influential representatives of contemporary ceramics and he occupies a central position in international ceramic art. Since the 1970s, he has been exploring the potential offered by clay, via its different textures and physical resistance. His monumental works, which are abstract and overtly organic, are acquired by private and public collections in Europe, Asia and the US. He has exhibited widely internationally and received numerous awards. He currently holds the position of President of the International Academy of Ceramics.
Over the recent years, Torbjørn Kvasbø has been working on the repetition and accumulation of the same hand-modeled stacked cylindric tubes and thus further developing his distinct style and exceptional understanding of the material.
Pauliina Pöllänen
Pauliina Pöllänen’s new works draw upon from the lineage of figurative sculpture through fragmented representation of the human body and the expressive potential of the material. Playing on the fetishized notions concerning the body and the material, the slightly abstracted group of sculptures bridge narratives around aspirations and anxieties connected to human mythology. Through the expressive potential of crank clay different conceptions of containment take shape through art historical and anthropological modes. The body is presented through porous, vessel like parts which share stylistic characters with the pioneering female ceramicists of the Viennese Secessionist movement, the natural world, and folklore.
Pauliina Pöllänen (b. 1983, Finland) has a PhD in artistic research from The Art Academy, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen, 2023. In recent years Pöllänen has exhibited at the CLAY museum in Denmark, Kunsthall Grenland, Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum and Uppsala Art Museum in Sweden. She has been a resident artist at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2018, and at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia 2016. Her works can be found in the collections of KODE, Nasjonalmuseet, and Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum among other places.
Eyvind Solli Andreassen
Eyvind Solli Andreassen creates ceramic objects that are shaped by different sculptural forms, volumes, and sizes. He uses traditional techniques, often based on ceramic containers, but creates abstract versions that extend the ceramic history. Andreassen’s works question how different processing of a material, like clay, can change the visual perception of an object from one form to another. His focus lies within the coiling technique which highlights an ancient way of crafting vessels while also allowing the coils to shine as an artistic expression and not merely as a construction technique.
Eyvind Solli Andreassen (b. 1986, Norway) works have been acquired by the collection of the National Museum of Norway and by several private collectors. Solli has exhibited his work at various art fairs and galleries both nationally and internationally, including the Chart Art Fair and Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen, Gallery QB in Oslo, the Norwegian Sculptors Society in Oslo, the London Design Fair, Galleri KÖSK, BOON in Paris, Galleri Format in Oslo, and Officine Saffi in Milan, where he was nominated for the Office Saffi Awards 4 and was awarded the residency prize.
