Jeanette Lafontine

Jeanette Lafontine

Oslo, Norway

About Jeanette Lafontine

Jeanette Lafontine is a contemporary emerging artist based in Oslo, Norway. Moving between abstraction and representation Jeanette presents pictorial worlds through both intuitive and controlled gestures, often returning to landscape motifs as a source for painterly invention. In her work she is exploring imaginary landscapes and dreamlike places through abstraction, and these landscapes often becomes a starting point for experimentation with different materials and techniques. She is interested in the process of making a painting, and her method becomes a search for images - they are discovered rather than created. Many of her latest works are based on drawings, making a dialog between the painted gestural surface and the drawn image, and between the intentional and the accidental. "My process often begins by making a series of drawings on paper. These drawings can be rough sketches of a location, a view, or they can be intuitive sketches – either way they are an approximation of a specific moment, or of something half remembered. On the other hand I work on canvases where I randomly, and without any particular plan, are adding color and using different techniques to create a surface. These processes are then merged together, where a drawing, shape, line etc are applied to the canvas. I am interested in painting both as an object and an idea. How different elements are making a pictorial space that can trigger our imagination, but also the physical qualities of a painting." Even though her works are often drawn from the landscape, she is not attempting to capture something about a particular place or time. It is more about a notion or idea of landscape. The focus of her work is not to inform the viewer of a specific meaning, rather it is ment to be experienced, hoping for the viewer to experience something that are familiar yet fictional.

Education:

2011/2013 - Master degree, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
2008/2011 - Bachelor degree, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
2007/2008 - Kunst_design fagskolen, Oslo.
2003/2004 - Multimedia Art, FH Salzburg, Austria
2001/2004 - Bachelor Visual communication, Buskerud University College

Events:

RESIDENCIES
2015 Residency Unlimited (RU), NYC.

PRESS
2017 Interview by Nordic Art Issue https://www.nordicartissue.com/skjer/2017/5/8/jeanette-lafontine-intervju

GRANTS & AWARDS
2014 Diversestipend, Kulturrådet (Arts Council Norway)
2012 Honorable mention, group exhibition Galleri Ramfjord, Oslo

MEMBERSHIPS
Norwegian Visual Artists Association (Norske Billedkunstnere - NBK)
The Young Artists' Society (Unge Kunstneres Samfund - UKS)

Exhibitions:

2018 OsloNowhere x Eger, group show, curated by OsloNowhere at Eger in Oslo.
2017 Opening exhibition, group show, Queen Sonja Art Stable, Oslo
2016 «Paintings & Drawings», Booster Gallery, Oslo
2016 A-laget group exhibition, Galleri-A, Oslo
2016 «SOLID ILLUSIONS» Sørenga, Oslo
2015 «Things Unknown - But Longed For Still», Aker Brygge, Fondsbygget, Oslo
2015 Group Exhibition, Akershus Art Centre
2015 «Intertwined Realities», Court Tree Collective Gallery, NYC.
2015 The Clemente/Artists Alliance Inc, Open Studios - New Museum's Ideas City Festival 2015, NYC.
2015 Closed Circuit, Abrazo Interno Gallery, NYC.
2014 Stipendutstillingen, Oslo Rådhus (Oslo City Hall)
2013 Graduation Show, Oslo National Academy of the Arts
2012 NOoSPHERE, New York. Oct 5th - 28th
2012 Galleri Seilduken
2012 Galleri Ramfjord, Oslo
2011 Graduation Show, Oslo National Academy of the Arts