Sverre Bjertnæs (*1976 in Tønsberg) began his career as a student of the Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum (*1944), who was successfully committed to the style of the Old Masters. It was here that Bjertnæs devoted himself primarily to classical portraiture, developing the high technical level that distinguishes his paintings today. Over the next twenty years, references to classical painting and traditional Christian iconography would form his series of works.
After two years under Nerdrum, Bjertnæs was accepted at the Oslo Academy of Art, where he remained true to his figurative style but also incorporated into his work new influences from the fertile surroundings of the academy. Bjertnæs’s first sensational work is the series Teenager, in which he made a cool and objective break with the Romantic tradition. One of his first solo shows was an exhibition of these works at the internationally renowned NAF (Norwegian Anarchist Foundation), the gallery belonging to the artist Bjarne Melgaard.
From there Bjertnæs continued to develop his style, at first retaining the narrative elements of Realism. He then increasingly became more abstract, moving from in front of the canvas into the room and developing vividly colourful installations in which he united paintings with sculptures, text and ready-mades.
Bjertnæs’s painting is motivated by existential questions: it’s about the frenzy of the artist ego, but also about the liberation from addiction, about the possibilities and conditions of one’s own artistic existence. In this, he shines, with countless references to art history which are as much influenced by Norwegian modernism as by international trends — for instance, Neo Rauch and his Leipzig School. He expands the dialogue intrinsic to the work to become a prolific exchange through various collaborations with other artists.
