OSLO NOIR

A series of art prints that, at first glance, are about Oslo. About the places we know, about the architecture, the fjord, and the summer light. But beneath the surface, cracks begin to show.

After many years of wandering through Oslo's streets – at all times of day – the city has become ingrained in me. I know its urban spaces and people as if they were a part of myself. But it's the moments that captivate me: a specific light on a building, a face or character that stands out, people gliding by, or a situation that sets the imagination in motion.

It can be something as simple as a glance or an unexpected coincidence. A feeling that a story exists there, just out of reach – something one senses but can't quite grasp.

That was the starting point for Oslo Noir.

The series is based on some of Oslo's most famous places – the Opera House, the Munch Museum, the City Hall, Tjuvholmen, Akershus Fortress, and more over time. It's still a recognizable Oslo, but something in the almost realistic portrayal shifts reality. In a space between the documentary, the cinematic, and the dreamlike, my stories emerge.

The City as a Character

I lived in Los Angeles for ten years, and the city taught me something I later brought back to Oslo: to see the city as a stage.

Los Angeles is a city of immense contrasts. Extreme wealth can exist side-by-side with poverty, homelessness, violence, gang culture, and mental turmoil. A drive through the city reveals extremities so vivid they sting the eyes.

For a cautious Scandinavian raised in social democracy and security, this became a phenomenon that stayed with me. Something that both frightened and fascinated me. Oslo is in many ways the opposite of Los Angeles. The city is associated with safety, welfare, high quality of life, and a society where much of the fundamental works.

But that doesn't mean our society doesn't struggle with demons, just like everywhere else in the world. They just have different colors and shapes and are far less visible. They hide behind glass facades, in the real estate market, in differences between people, in loneliness, in status, and in the way we view each other. I believe it was this difference that made Oslo Noir interesting to me. In Los Angeles, the contrasts were often brutal and direct. In Oslo, they are more subdued and controlled.

That doesn't necessarily mean they are less interesting.

Quite the opposite.

When a familiar place becomes my stage

The Other Opera – limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

I have never been particularly interested in depicting a building simply because it is famous or beautiful. What interests me is what happens when people and places begin to tell something together.

The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet is one of the most photographed places in Oslo. Its white marble, the fjord, and open architecture have become part of the city's visual identity. But in The Other Opera, I try to stage our own everyday opera. The daily dramas we carry with us transformed into a still image from a film that never existed. We've landed in the middle of a moment where we ourselves become part of the action.

The beautiful and the unsettling

Most of the characters in Oslo Noir are elegant, beautiful, and seemingly self-assured. They are not classic noir characters. It's not about gangsters and police investigators. They are more or less ordinary, well-kept people – who just seem to be on their way somewhere.

In Noble Lovers, the noir aesthetic meets a more romantic and Pre-Raphaelite imagery. The reclining, outstretched woman, the "white prince," rose bushes and stucco, the water and the summer light point towards a classic love story.

But upon closer inspection, there are traces of another narrative.

Perhaps the beautiful isn't always as innocent as it first appears.

Noble Lovers – limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

Munch, Oslo, and the Inner Life

It is almost inevitable to engage with Oslo without engaging with Edvard Munch. Not only because the Munch Museum has become yet another Oslo icon in the cityscape, but because he was concerned with something that is also central to Oslo Noir: what goes on inside. Anxiety, love, loneliness, and alienation. They exist, even in a city that on the surface appears very successful.

WWMD? – What Would Munch Do? Is a motif that asks: What would Munch see if he walked around Oslo today?

WWMD? – limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

The City as an Economic Landscape

The shadows are also about money. Oslo has undergone major changes, and real estate, investments, status, and economic power have become an increasingly prominent part of the city.

We live in a city where buildings and homes are not just places where people live and work, but also represent significant economic values.

What happens when your home is primarily an investment?

Liquid Assets moves into this landscape. Much of the transactional activity takes place quietly, where a select circle operates in its own shadowy bubbles far from land.

Liquid Assets– limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

Who is left?

Oslo City Hall emerged in an era that believed in something greater than itself. Not as a monument to the wealthiest, but as a home for the city.

One Last Toast is not just an image of luxury, wine, and a beautiful evening. It also addresses the contrast between the city as a community and the city as a commodity.

One Last Toast – limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

A city one can continue to discover

The idea that not everything in a picture necessarily needs to be explained, or that it can be perceived as vaguely surreal, is not something I object to. In The Tiger Knows, the old Østbanehallen meets Wes Anderson's fantastic cinematic palette infused with characters from various social strata – in their own little play.

Perhaps the tiger knows something others don't.

The Tiger Knows – limited edition, 60 copies, signed and numbered.

Light is also part of the story

It might seem contradictory to call this series Oslo Noir. Oslo is hardly a dark city in the summer. The Nordic summer light can be almost otherworldly beautiful. The fjord reflects the sky, the buildings acquire a special glow, and even late in the evening, the city can be bathed in light.

It is precisely this contrast that is exciting. Oslo Noir is not necessarily about darkness, but about what can exist beneath the surface of the beautiful and the everyday. Light becomes part of the story because it makes the city clearer – and at the same time can reveal unexpected details – inviting a new perspective, an unexpected encounter, or a small detail that changes how one sees the whole.

From the exhibition Oslo Noir at Galleri M35 Collective in Oslo

Here I draw heavily from film noir and magical realism in literature. I like the tension between the recognizable and the slightly skewed – when an ordinary situation can suddenly feel as if it holds something more or something different.

The series is still evolving. I continue to wander through Oslo, searching for motifs and situations, without always knowing exactly what I'm looking for.

Many of the images begin exactly like this: with a walk through the city, or a thought in a moment that makes me pause.

Because perhaps it is in the places we usually rush past that the most interesting stories can be found.