Axel Tostrup Evensen

My Story

After finishing my art education, I have had a number of solo exhibitions, including Bergens Kunstforening, Bomuldfabriken Kunsthall, Rogaland Kunstnersenter, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Galleri Semmingsen, RAM Gallery and Gallery LNM. Furthermore, I have taken part in several larger collective exhibitions such as the Autumn exhibition and the Østlandsutstillingen and received a number of grants and decoration commissions.

I was born in Oslo in the mid-60s and grew up in the art environment around Kunstnernes hus and Theaterkaféen. The upbringing was free and limitless. Everything was legal. As a 5-year-old, I went to kindergarten with two real six-legged friends and a fox tail sewn into the back of my trousers, inspired by Hakkebakkeskogen and the TV series Kruttrøyk. With the police being called as a result. Later I was expelled from kindergarten, as I was constantly late or not at all, having spent part of the night sleeping under the table at the Theater cafe.

As I got older and a teenager, a lot of hard training became a way to cope with the chaos around me. The training created balance in life and, as a side effect, I became very good at sports. It was training as a valve that was important, and it still is to this day.

In my early 20s I returned to the art world and after hard work I entered the art academy in Bergen and started at the Vestlandets Art Academy in 1994. There I experienced a strong sense of belonging that I had missed for many years. My being, which I had become aware of in encounters with nature and in dreams, was reinforced in this environment. I see that freedom versus control repeats itself in my work, escape versus encounter and confrontation.

I grew up with a lot of rules in art, don't draw with a ballpoint pen, don't color, don't use pure black, use the golden ratio, art theory. I experienced a contradiction between art as playful, free and limitless - and the rules that prevailed. Humans have a need to understand and put things in boxes, but I experience this as inhibiting creativity.