Exploring Scandinavia

Johnny Hurts (b 1988) grew up in the little Norwegian municipality Brumunddal, son of an Argentinian mother and a Norwegian father. He tells us that he was given a lot of freedom and was a clever school child but noticed early that he was more interested in his own projects than listening to his teachers. This is the story of a Norwegian’s journey from professional snowboarder to visual artist – an interview with artist Jonny Hurts.

He has always been fascinated by his background; how his mother, son of the legendary football player René Orlando Houseman, nicknamed Loco, arrived in Brumunddal and met his father, an electrician and a ski enthusiast.

“I was not born by coincidence,” he often said to himself. “I am meant to be something.”

He always wanted to be free to pursue adventure and found snowboarding, freeriding at his leisure in any mountain terrain, was his true self.  Like his father he studied to be an electrician, but the pursuit of riding massive peaks attracted him more, and slowly he mastered the art so well that he traveled to the USA during winters to perform professionally. He even performed in films and became friends with other creative personalities.

He met Nicolai Gyllenhammar and together they formed the art duo Broslo, describing themselves as “creators of unique art – we know what you want”. They are both self-taught, which means that neither of them has an official art education. However, Gyllenhammar has a master’s degree in architecture and runs his own architectural office. Before his architecture education, he studied vocational subjects, and took a certificate as a car mechanic.

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Broslo created their own artistic collective universe, at the old airport of Oslo, Fornebu, and called it “Californebu”. They lived out their dreams through art and never looked back. For the Norwegian television company TV2 they produced a series which ran for almost two years, showcasing their world of art and music.

“You find much of my history in this television program,” says Jonny Hurts.

A Norwegian’s Journey From Professional Snowboarder to Visual Artist, read on.

In the series, viewers could follow the ups and downs when Nikko and Jonny were about to make Broslo’s biggest show so far in their careers in a difficult time. But as usual when the guys started something, they did not save on gunpowder. The ambitions were sky high, time and the corona were a challenge, in addition to the many other balls they simultaneously had in the air.

“Together with Nikolai I made my first picture,” says Jonny. “We bought an abandoned ski stick factory in Lillehammer with the intention of redecorating it,” he adds. “It turned out not to be what you might expect from a renovation object. We worked there during the weekends and made special furniture, used design elements and transformed the old factory to something very special.”

They filled the walls with “things” without any knowledge of art. “I didn’t know anything about art history, art distribution or techniques,” says Jonny. He decided he had no time for a family, he just wanted to create, create something that would last – longer than himself.

“People want more than white walls and an ordinary kitchen,” he says. “We made furniture and visual art objects, and after six years, a guy came on visit one day and was over enthusiastic.” They sold the transformed building at a reasonable profit.

In 2014, he started to produce 20 big art objects in his studio at Fornebu for an art exhibition initiative by art dealer Katinka Traaseth. She asked if the duo would like to take part in a popup exhibition in central Oslo. The duo was offered a corner in the 1.300 sq. meters premises. Howeevr, they refused by saying “all or nothing at all”. Reluctantly, Traaseth accepted and the duo created the works for the exhibition in the course of five months. The exhibition “False Diamonds” was a huge success.

During the opening party, many felt that they had ended up at a club in New York for a moment, with DJs, shows and colorful slush drinks at the bar. While young and old mingled, artwork was sold at record speed. – It was completely incredible. “I have never experienced anything like this in Oslo. There were 1000 people at the opening. People did not have time to think before the works were sold, and the red patches flew between the walls,” said Katinka Traaseth in an interview.

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“From that time, I have had one big project every year in addition to smaller ones,” says Jonny. “I still work together with Nikolai from time to time, but now I’ve more or less gone solo. I have a more honest relation to art now than before. I express my own feelings, and so it’s difficult to be two.”

At the exhibition “Once Upon A Time” at Fine Arts in the heart of Oslo earlier this year, he followed in the footsteps of Damien Hirst, Peter Blake, Pushwagner and David Yarrow, covering 20 000 sq. ft with around 150 artworks including holograms, paintings, drawings, sculptures and carpets.

“It’s much about the child in me taking over the creative process,” he says. “To me it’s important not ‘to grow up’ in my head, to be playful, in the search of impossible techniques – like a child. It’s a lot of nostalgia. Technically, it’s not difficult, but it has been a challenge but a I was in a playful mood.”

Creating is what intrigues him. He loves to evoke people’s emotions. “Young people understand me,” he explains. “If you want something strong enough, you succeed. I do many artworks at the same time. I have a lot in my head simultaneously. The idea and thoughts are there before I start materializing anything. I think one of my strengths is to conduct many processes at the same time, a lot of contrasts that need to be followed up. Done in the right order everything get right in the end.”

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He adds that some artworks are finalized in a couple of hours while others take several weeks. When asked what his future plans are, he answers, “I will continue to do what I do now until I die. The most important thing is that I’m not standing still. I want to inspire people, be more aware of how I treat people. At the moment, I have few responsibilities to Norway. Norway is a small country, and I want to reach out to the world, meet people, find my very special way of expressing myself and hopefully deserve a place in art history.”

He explains that he, In the digital world, can develop works over time and they become better and better and better. Physical works are more difficult since it’s not easy to correct mistakes.

“I like to combine classical works with modern art. The great artists expressed themselves with their contemporaries. Now, I can do the same in a ‘travel in time’. No classical artist can match what I do today. I try to master most art techniques as best I can and give it my very own expression. Without formal art education I feel free. I like fashion, jewelry and digital art. There are no boundaries.”

His role models are, not surprisingly, Edvard Munch and Gustav Vigeland. “Both managed to fulfill their projects and use the resources around them – with style. Munch worked all his life for art without being disturbed artistically. He refused to be a father in the name of art. He was good at measuring the time he lived in and stretching boundaries. Also, Picasso developed and mastered many techniques and art eras to create his own expression throughout his life, more playful than most of his contemporaries.

“What is contemporary art to you?”

“Art moves in cycles and I think our present time has been an important cycle in breaking certain taboos. If you don’t meet the critics expectations, you might please someone else. You always have to bring something new to the creation,” he concludes.

A Norwegian’s Journey From Professional Snowboarder to Visual Artist, artist Jonny Hurts interviewed by Tor Kjolberg.

Feature image (on top): Paint brushes, by Jonny Hurts.

All images © Daily Scandinavian – Tor Kjolberg.

Norwegian painter Fredrik Værslev made his international breakthrough in 2013. At a high pace, he exhibited his works in renowned galleries on both sides of the Atlantic, including in one of Europe’s most prestigious art institutions, the Pompideu Center in Paris. Read more about the international breakthrough for the Norwegian painter.

In 2018 and 2019, the Zak Group worked with Fredrik Værslev on the exhibition’s campaign and accompanying catalogue as part of their continuing collaboration with the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo. Drawing on the modernist references of some of the artworks, and the unusual techniques of painting, Zak Group developed a visual identity that explores creative agency and creative imposition on the rational. This can be seen in the use of type and graphic gesture, colour and texture and the implication of layers.

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In 2020, Fredrik Værslev (born 1979 in Moss, Norway, lives and works in Drøbak, Norway) created a new series of paintings depicting national flags. At the same time, Dieter Roelstraete undertook an investigation of vexillology through art historical, sociocultural, and philosophical lenses —the study of flags—as a way to decipher World Paintings.

According to Dieter Roelstraete: “An old Jean-Luc Godard quip comes to mind: ‘It’s not blood, it’s red,’ to which the symbolists inevitably reply: ‘It’s not red, it’s blood!’ The same symbolists who would likely exclaim, ‘It’s not a painting, it’s a flag!’ to which the formalists would object in turn: ‘It’s not a flag, it’s a painting!’ Asked differently still, the question becomes: Is it a duck, or a rabbit? Is it a—duckrabbit? (There is no such thing—or is there?)”

At leading auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Phillips, Værslev’s paintings have been sold for seven-digit figures (NOK), which makes the artist’s works some of the most expensive art made by a living Norwegian.

Værslev studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt and at the Malmö Art Academy, Sweden. He is the director and founder of the Landings Project Space in Vestfossen, Norway.

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Nevertheless, 95 percent of his artistic activities have taken place outside Norway’s borders, and his art has always been more relevant to an international audience than a Norwegian one. Værslev navigates between different painterly traditions. His practice demonstrates an insistent focus on the painting process that demonstrates the possibilities and relevance of the medium today. His works stem from the meeting between architecture and painting, and take form as painted renderings of motifs from the artist’s daily life.

Although there are long traditions for Norwegian artists to go out and both study and work in other countries, artistic success in this country for many decades has mainly been about progress in Norway. Fredrik Værslev is one of the few Norwegian artists who breaks this tradition.

He treats his paintings as objects, often created through more or less laborious, serial, or deterministic processes where time itself, as well as various external factors, become active co-creators in the making of the piece. In several series he left his paintings outdoors for long periods of time, allowing the weather and external wear to complete them.

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Værslev’s achievements spring from a not too glamorous studio in a distinctly Norwegian settlement, Vestfossen in Buskerud where he also challenges the process of painting by freely collaborating with fellow artists or making use of untraditional painting tools, such as spray cans or equipment used to paint roads and sports arenas.

His development to international fame has only just begun.

International Breakthrough For Norwegian Painter, written by Tor Kjolberg