Pal Vigeland: When Metal Becomes Nature

Description

Alongside stringency of form and precision of execution, Vigeland develops surprising variability in his handling of the material. From his beginnings in noble metals, which he used in his jewellery, his path led to an inten sified and meanwhile almost exclusive use of base metals: the artist reworks drinks cans and tins for storing fish or biscuits into sophisticated small plates, which he combines piece by piece into amorphous, part ly geometric objects. In this, according to author Gunnar Danbolt, Vigeland resembles an alchemist transforming off beat objects into art. In his sculptures a play of light and shade, of voids and layers thus develops that appears to defy any physical law.

Pal Vigeland (b. 1944 in Oslo, NO) studied at the Werkkunstschule, Schwabisch Gmund (DE) and the Art Academy in Bergen (NO). He was employed as a designer in a silver-goods factory from 1968 to 1981. From then on, he ran his own workshop in Bergen, and later, from 2001, in Oslo. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions, both in Scandinavia and abroad, and has been commissioned to provide art for churches and other public spaces.