National Museum KODE, Bergen, Norway
22 November 2024 – 17 March 2025
A love of ceramic history connects Rasmus Meyer’s collecting activities and the work of our gallery artist Heidi Bjørgan in an exhibition at KODE that both challenges and enchants. With her contemporary female perspective, this exhibition sees Bjørgan create new and surprising dialogues at Rasmus Meyer, which contains a collection dominated by paintings created by male artistic geniuses.
The eccentric American ceramicist George Ohr (1857–1918) has been a significant influence on Bjørgan’s works, serving as both inspiration and a point of reference. Just like Ohr, Bjørgan challenges the notion of what constitutes good ceramics by ‘erasing’ traces of all learned skills. Her approach involves doing everything that theoretically shouldn’t work, such as mixing glazes and types of clay that are not usually combined. Bjørgan draws upon her experience and skills as a ceramic artist to push boundaries and defy the traditional rules.