In His Latest Solo Exhibition, Magnus Pettersen’s Glass Orbs Evoke a Sense of Metaphysical Disturbance

In Norwegian designer Magnus Pettersen’s latest solo exhibition, which was on view at QB Gallery in Oslo last month, a new series of sculptures was presented, which purport, per the press materials, to transgress the boundary between artworks and functional objects. But that isn't remotely the most interesting thing about the pieces; pretty much everything published on this site at this point achieves that with equal aplomb. For us, the most interesting thing is the addition of wood, yes, especially in brilliantly tinted hues like emergency orange. But more important is the inclusion of tiny glass orbs, perched on the arms or backs or smack dab in the middle of several of the seats, which sometimes prevent the pieces from being functional objects at all. Why are they there? What is their meaning? Has Pettersen recently discovered astrology?
More

Six Norwegian Designers Explore Our New Normal

Organized by design collective Fold Oslo and featuring work by six emerging Norway-based designers, "The Ny Normal" isn’t so much a literal reaction to the pandemic, but rather a nudge towards a more thoughtful, local, and sustainable approach to how we can make and use things going forward.
More

“If Books Could Talk, What Furniture Would They Ask You to Make For Them?”

The design world sprang almost alarmingly fast back into action this week in Milan, but before that, one of the quieter — and cuter — exhibitions to appear on our radar was by the peripatetic Norwegian design collective Pyton. Together with the artist-run publishing project Heavy Books, Pyton's founders Tron Meyer, Henrik Ødegaard and Richard Øiestad created a small collection of new works to show at Galleri Golsa in Oslo. For the exhibition, Christian Tunge, the artist behind Heavy Books, gave several limited editions from his publishing house to the designers and asked: “If books could talk, what furniture would they ask you to make for them?”
More

This Norwegian Designer is Making a Vase Every Day for 365 Days

We've known artists who have committed to making a drawing a day, or graphic designers who have created a digital poster each night when they return home from their day job. But never had we seen a designer take on the task of making a three-dimensional object — much less one that needs to be glazed, fired, photographed, and Instagrammed — for each day of the year, until we were browsing the account of Ann Kristin Einarsen earlier this spring. Her #365vases project — in which she designs a vase a day with a new set of parameters each month — is next level.
More
Norwegian design brand A Part

Four Designers Just Got Together to Form a Norwegian Superbrand

Remember Temple of the Dog? The Traveling Wilburys? Cream? In music, the idea of a supergroup — in which several successful solo musicians band together to form a new group — is a familiar one. In design, it's less so — and yet that's exactly what four Norwegian designers have done with their new brand A Part, which launched earlier this week.
More

Meet Sigve Knutson, The Rising Star of Norwegian Design

Sigve Knutson is part of a special cadre of designers who seem to emerge from art school fully formed and gallery ready, their degree projects often representing some ingenious made-up process that acts as a bellwether for where the design world is headed. His 2016 thesis project from the Design Academy Eindhoven was immediately snapped up and developed by Carwan Gallery; earlier this year, when we called out a certain lumpen aesthetic as one of the top design trends for 2018, Knutson's work was the primary reason why.
More
Norwegian design in Milan — Norwegian Presence

The Norwegian Design Exhibition That’s On Our Must-Visit List

The annual Salone del Mobile is coming up sooner than we can believe, and one of the exhibitions we’re most excited for this year is Norwegian Presence. The fourth in a series of annual exhibitions put forth by Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA), Klubben (the Norwegian designers’ union), and Norwegian Crafts, this year's show is divided into three, with each part celebrating the country’s designers, craft artists, and manufacturers, respectively — essentially, every element of the country’s making community.
More

This Norwegian Auction Just Made Us Excited for the Fall Design Season

Today we got word of a new auction launching in Oslo next month, which we hope will be the first of many: Called Unika, the event — held at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts from September 9-10 and online from September 1-10 — is a collaboration between the biennial event Designer’s Saturday, Oslo's oldest auction house Blomqvist, and Klubben, the Norwegian designers organization.
More