The exhibition's title, Hhh, refers to an exhalation – a sigh of relief, a breath, a bodily experience rather than a word. For Sveinung Rudjord Unneland, painting is not an image of something, but the very act of painting itself: an insistence on the painterly language, on what arises beyond the verbal. This movement – this exhalation – is also a reminder of the body, of breath, and of the passage of time.

Unneland often works by tiling multiple canvases into a single whole. This is a deliberate visual device. In the meeting between canvases, spaces emerge – small pauses within the picture plane – which he further emphasizes with painted fields and lines. Some of these fields, which resemble duct tape or paper tape, are painted with the same precision and presence as the rest of the surface. In a series of tall, upright paintings, the meetings between the canvases form the letter H – a sign of breath, an echo of the exhibition's title, and a concrete result of how the canvases are assembled.

Where previous projects took the square as a starting point – as a symbol of rationality and control – Hhh marks a shift. Instead of examining what is measurable, Unneland now moves toward the bodily and the sensory, toward the experience of being in the space with the painting. Where the square once functioned as a framework for reflection on structure and repetition, Hhh opens up for something more fluid, breathing, and open. This shift can also be seen in the context of Unneland's broader practice, in which he has reflected on how we relate to images in a time of constant image flow. Confronted with the "endless grind of images," he seeks to create another kind of space – a painterly climate – where the viewer can experience the presence of painting rather than read it as a narrative.

View pdf presentation of Sveinung Rudjord Unneland's exhibition "Hhh" (Norwegian)

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Sveinung Rudjord Unneland (b. 1981) was educated at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2002–2007). Since graduating, he has lived in Bergen, where he combines his artistic practice with teaching at the Art Academy (KMD) and the Bergen School of Architecture (BAS). In 2023, he completed his artistic PhD, "Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy."

Unneland has previously exhibited his work at, among others, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Kunstnerforbundet, Trykkeriet, Bergen Art Museum, Entrée, LNM, LAUTOM, Østfold Kunstnersenter, Tag Team Studio, After the Butcher, and Kristiansand Kunsthall. He is currently involved in several KORO projects and participating in an exhibition at CAPC, Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux.