Per Barclay
Soft Sweet Vortex
Per Barclay, Deichman VII, 2022–23. Møller Collection / Aars. Courtesy the artist and OSL Contemporary, Oslo.
The Norwegian artist Per Barclay is presented in a solo exhibition with new and existing works from his longstanding international career.
Det er intet mindre enn genialt.
Dette er absolutt en utstilling jeg anbefaler
Per Barclay was born in 1955 in Oslo, and lives and works in Turin, Italy, and Oslo. His artistic practice encompasses photography, sculpture, and collage, and makes use of materials such as stone, steel, aluminium, glass, water, and waste oil.
This career survey shows forty artworks made from 1979 up to today, including a new photographic series of Barclay’s ‘oil room’ at the former Deichman Library in Oslo, produced in 2022. The selection of works in the exhibition, from national and international collections, shows how specific motifs and models have been repeated and expanded over time through various materials and formats.
Soft Sweet Vortex seeks to highlight Barclay's interest in the contrast between air and liquid, which creates tension and a deep sense of the uncanny in his work. Barclay's use of solid materials, such as steel and oil, and choice of extravagant sites and repetitive formal exercises, reflect on industry and capital in their mutual dependency and entwined logic.
Barclay’s relationship with Henie Onstad Kunstsenter goes back to 1991, when he exhibited his first photographs of oil rooms. The following year, in 1992, Barclay built a ‘water room’ outside in the park where Sal Haaken now stands. Soft Sweet Vortex presents for the first time in Norway a series of photographs taken of the water room’s interior. In 2019, the Glasshus (Glasshouse) was installed in the art centre’s sculpture park, and it is one of the first sculptures you see when arriving at Henie Onstad.
The exhibition is curated by Ana María Bresciani.
Per Barclay: Soft Sweet Vortex is accompanied by a comprehensive English catalogue edited by Ana María Bresciani. It features new essays as well as a conversation between the artist and the curator.
The catalogue is kindly supported by Ingela Lorentzen, Torill and Erik Bøhler, Lise and Carl Otto Løvenskiold, SEB, FERD, Jens Ulltveit-Moe and Skipsreder Tom Wilhelmsens Stiftelse.
Thank you to Formue for support of the exhibition.
- Per Barclay: Soft Sweet Vortex
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Per Barclay
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Ana María Bresciani
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Utstillingsprodusent: Silje Hammer
Intern konservator: Hilde Berteig Rustan
Ekstern konservator: Alexandre Pedersen
Museumsteknisk leder: Hans Christian Skui Lindvig
Museumsteknisk team: Dorthe Håker, Sjur Kleiven, Live Haug Hilton, Martin Bech-Ravn, Anders Hergum og Marielle Sølvi Kalldal
Byggteknisk rådgiver: Morten Edvardsen
Arkitektur: Andrea Pinochet, +groma
Redaktør: Ana María Bresciani
Design: Håkon Stensholt, ANTI
Kommunikasjonsansvarlig: Therese Manus
Tekstrådgiver: Therese Manus
Digital markedsføring: Daniel Weiseth Kjellesvik