Oyvind Myhre: "Icon and Landscape"
The Global Art
Venue,
Seattle
Apr 5 , 2001 - May 1,
2001
 Glow (2000), oil on panel |
Oyvind Myhre is a self-taught artist from Oslo, Norway. His travels throughout Malaysia, Australia, Egypt, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, India and Mexico are the inspiration for his first American solo exhibition at the Global Art Venue. Myhre has stated that his "ambition is to communicate meditative topics through a visual image in which the viewer may recognize something of a universal nature." There are two distinct bodies of work where the artist has developed strong male and female symbolism - landscapes (female) and totems (male). His landscapes show that he is one of this generation's artists who still sees a spiritual beauty in the landscape. In his painting "Tuscany Metamorphosis" curvaceous hills and meadows that suggest the fertility of the land undulate with evergreens and cypress trees. Myhre's totem poles are very different from his landscapes. They are unique geometric "icons" charged with power. He uses experimental techniques that go beyond the tradition of his landscapes. The differences between these two methods of working emphasize the dichotomy that the artist explores in his work and in his philosophy. Spiritual beauty is perhaps the unifying theme.
© Robert Peterson