One encounters multiple worlds through Lars Korff Lofthus’s paintings: historic Hardanger interiors with its farmhouse beds and distinctive cabinetry, and the naked bodies of men. In earlier works, Lofthus’s motifs included the landscapes of Vestlandet, Norway – not in a National Romantic sense – but rather capturing the contemporary landscape with signs of modern architecture with tunnels snaking through mountainsides and snow plow stakes marking roads. In his solo exhibition Før han sovner (Before He Sleeps), he turns his gaze inward to the cultural heritage of Hardanger and his own queer identity.

Loftus works here with two groups of imagery – the traditional interiors from Vestlandet, and depictions of naked men. A particular tension is created in placing the two side-by-side, opening up for new readings of domesticity and masculinity and inviting the viewer to look at belonging, desire and identity through a queer lens.

Formally, Lofthus draws on traditional ornamentation and folk art. The interiors are painted with broad and transparent brushstrokes, in colours which somehow are both true to these historic interiors while also surprisingly modern – often intense and occasionally even jarring. Lofthus’s brushstrokes appear speedy and effortless, and yet they articulate a tremendous level of detail from these ornamented interiors. With precise brushstrokes and an economic use of paint, he describes light and space with ease.

Lofthus presents a situation where the domestic, the historic and the queer exist side by side. The paintings explore how identity is formed in the meeting between desire and tradition, between ornamentation and body, and between belonging and alienation. ___________________________________________________________

Lars Korff Lofthus (b. 1978) was educated at the Bergen Academy of Fine Arts, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Nordic School of Art in Kokkola, Finland. He has exhibited extensively and is also engaged in writing, mediation and curating practices. His works have been purchased by, among others, the National Museum, Kode, Oslo Municipality, Equinor, and the University of Agder. He divides his time and work between Bergen, where he was previously an associate professor at the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts, and his studio in Hardanger. The exhibition is supported by Kulturdirektoratet.

The exhibition is supported by Kulturdirektoratet.

Click here for a pdf presentation of the exhibition.