Norwegian Printmaker Opens New Season
Norwegian printmaker Jan Albert Fürst Kolstad, who uses light and nature to create mood and atmosphere in his art, opens a new season at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art Aug. 23-Oct. 13. A free, public opening reception for "Jan Albert Furst Kolstad: Prints" will be held Thursday, Aug. 30, from 4-6 p.m. at the museum.
"His exploration of life's beginnings and meanings within etching's depths, textures and happenstances will add much to this community's understanding of printmaking's potential for conversation," says Martha Ensign Johnson, former Westmont instructor of printmaking.
Kolstad studied at the College of Art and Design in Oslo and the California College of Arts and Crafts. In San Francisco, he encountered Asian art, which made an impact on his work. "(This) was of decisive importance for Kolstad’s further development, and one can hardly imagine his pictorial world without having to refer to this," writes Øivind Bjerke, professor of art history at the University of Oslo.
A master printmaker and artist, Kolstad has received numerous grants and shown his works in more than 30 solo exhibitions. A professor at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, he has taught for nearly 25 years at Asker Art School.
"I look at the world through the eyes of a printmaker," Kolstad says. “In our discipline there are dimensions but no edges, diversity but no limits."
In conjunction with Kolstad's exhibition, Los Angeles-based sculptor Brad Howe displays "Kukorica," a stainless steel and polyurethane form, on the lawn outside the museum.
Howe, a Riverside, Calif., native, studied at Stanford University and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. His welded metal sculptures have been exhibited in Mexico, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, Japan, France and throughout the United States.
"He brings playfulness to his work through bright colors and undulating forms,” says Judy Larson, director of the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and Adams professor of art history. "The freshness and spontaneity in Howe's sculptures make the viewer smile."
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and college holidays. For more information, please visit www.westmontmuseum.org or contact the museum at (805) 565-6162.