PRESS

Greenpointers , June 23, 2021
WE ARE NATURE offers a Pride Eco-Party
Pride celebrates all colors of the rainbow, but this Friday the spotlight might be on the color green. NOoSPHERE Arts continues its We Are Nature rooftop series with queer-friendly performances, music, and (of course) drag queens.

Design Arts Daily , April 2021
Up on the Roof
As we cautiously move forward through this pandemic, hope is an action we can muster even with the stress of uncontrollable external forces. It is sometimes really, really difficult; but when something like the We Are Nature Rooftop Series,  produced by NOoSPHERE Arts comes across my screen, my hopefulness gets a rush. It’s not like nostalgia for certain songs [Up on the Roof by The Drifters, for example] or drive-in movies [which have been popping up all over New York City during the last few years. It’s more like proof that art matters in ways that just can’t be explained. And that artists working in all mediums continue to reach out to their communities with presentations and performances that often link unexpected elements. 

Dance Europe , Oct/Nov 2020
WE ARE NATURE @ LAST FRONTIER NYC
[…], dancer and choreographer Kelly Ashton Todd and bassist Christiaan van Voorst van Beest appear below us on a lower rooftop. Todd, looking like a disciple of Pina Bausch, in a taupe nightgown, gathers branches to form a nest while the musician plays on. The two artists, who both are members of the immersive theatre show Sleep No More, are in constant synchronicity even as Todd traverses far from her counterpart. Inspired by bird migration, the work has a cyclical structure with Todd beginning and ending in a curled cat-like position.
Exploring the far-flung areas of the roof, the dancer grabs branches like a feral animal crawling in the shadows, shoulder blades glide off her spine. Working her way to the roof's edge, Todd perches herself like an egret. She nimbly etches her wispy limbs into the skyline behind her. VanVoorst van Beest responds to the precarious moment with hollowing, guttural sounds, as if they're coming from deep inside of his instrument. […]
While the work conjures the natural world, it effectively collides with the very entities that threaten it. Industrial plants hum and whir not too far away. Two giant bulbous structures ominously blink fluorescent green and red lights at The Newton Creek Water Treatment Plant. Cars honk as they careen down the nearby highway. Their cacophony interrupts the bassist's mellifluous sounds. The tension of these two worlds, coupled with the crises that the planet is facing, underscores just how much everything is hanging in the balance.

September 2020
A Conversation with Gjert Rognli
You were awarded the NOoSPHERE Arts’ Residency Award , could you tell us more about this project and the performance you are planning for Last Frontier in NYC?: I have a performance planned at Last Frontier NYC, where I will combine film, sound and sculpture into a coherent installation. With my project What Nature Knows I wish to combine the themes of contemporary life, dreams, past and present. The shifts are rapid in our time, with polarization and globalization in many directions, we are in an era were worship of youth, consumerism, and the individual prevails. What we are doing today will affect the way people live in the future.

January-February, 2020
A Neighborhood Guide to Brooklyn

For Sol Kjøk , a Norwegian-born painter, Greenpoint has been home since 1998. She was part of the first wave of artists who made the jump over the East River from Manhattan seeking affordable studios and living quarters. Today, Sol is the head of two performance spaces — her studio, Last Frontier NYC, and her home, Mothership NYC , a 10-minute walk away. The latter also hosts a rota of visiting artists from around the world who perform their works at monthly salons.

It’s a way for local and international artists to meet and talk about art, Sol says as we chat at her studio. She’s organised a performance: aerialist Erica Marie Mancini dangles from ropes elegantly shifting above us as a band plays avant-garde music. My studio is called Last Frontier NYC because, well, it’s geographically on the border of Brooklyn and Queens but also it’s really the last frontier for artists in Greenpoint, says Sol. Rents are going up and it’s not as affordable for us anymore, so my purpose for these performances is to keep alive the artistic spirit of the neighbourhood that’s existed for the last couple of decades. But that said, the longer I’ve lived here, the more and more I love Greenpoint, Brooklyn ."

May 2019

Mothership: A throwback to the 70s’ art scene opens up her rooftop
in: 111 Rooftops in New York That You Must Not Miss

In these days of chic, safe, and, face it, exclusive New York City, it can be hard to recall the 1970s when the city was about to go bankrupt. Muggings and murders were commonplace, and artists paid a pittance for sprawling cold-water lofts in abandoned SoHo factories. Certainly it was a much more dangerous city, but an atmosphere prevailed that attracted and nurtured innumerable artists, the likes of Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, and so many more of the creatives that are still today’s cultural influencers.             
A tiny remnant of that 1970’s art scene lives on at Mothership. This artist live-and-work space collective is housed in a permanently docked Brooklyn warehouse at the end of a gritty, industrial street that backs up to Newton Creek. This ship that does not sail is a proud throwback to New York’s art past and serves as a safe harbor where international artists can afford to anchor themselves in the 21st century.
Mothership has an open-house event on the second Tuesday of each month featuring artists of all stripes: filmmakers, performance artists, painters, sculptors, and so forth. When the weather cooperates, the guests migrate up the few steps to Mothership’s spacious, unimproved rooftop. The evening becomes that month’s variation of an open-air art party, as well as a blast from New York City’s less stuffy, more avant-garde past.
               Artists and non-artists are warmly welcomed at these casual events that require not much more than an open mind and a willingness to venture out to an edge of Brooklyn that might not be familiar, though it is easy enough to find. The schedule can vary so please check the website for monthly events and surprises that Captain Sol Kjøk and her mates create. There is never a dull moment at Mothership, and when it’s warm and inviting outside, the rooftop is open for expansive views while expanding your mind.

May 2019
Interview with Ahmed Umar: "Dreaming Is for Free"

The artist keeps receiving more recognition. He has now been awarded a travel grant from the City of Oslo for his stay in New York. Our talk is taking place on the "deck" of Mothership NYC, an artist collective in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Captain of the ship is the Norwegian artist Sol Kjøk , who has established a new residency program through which international artists are selected for a free residency period in New York. [Translated from Norwegian]

December 2018
The Best Things to Do in NYC This Week : Non Grata's Diverse Universe  @ Last Frontier NYC

Spend your Saturday night way, way out there with legendary Estonian performance-art troupe Non Grata and friends at Diverse Universe . Non Grata's bizarre, extremely interactive performances have been likened to a "fantastical and deranged anarchic circus" and described as "pure energy being channeled ritualistically through an audience." They regularly involve abrasive noise music, demented masks, inexplicable shouting through a bullhorn, people (only sometimes the performers) getting lashed together or branded with cattle prods, and plenty of fire and explosions . The Estonians will be joined by Emotron from Georgia, MAKS from NYC, and Animals Against Humans from New Jersey—each sure to be more insane than the last.

September 2018
From Manchester to NYC: Pankhurst in the Park Salon

During the month of September, UK-based artist, curator, and founder of Alexandra Arts artist Lotte Karlsen was Artist-in-Residence at Kjok’s nearby other space The Mothership . Karlsen kicked off the Tuesday night salon with an informal lecture and slide show presentation of her near decade-long socially-engaged artwork in Alexandra Park, Manchester, where the majority of the Pankhurst in the Park (PitP) festival took place 2014-18. The September 2018 salon celebrated four years in which the Pankhurst in the Park project has spearheaded an initiative committed to providing a platform for women in the Arts, including a dedicated commitment to cultural exchange with U.S.-based artists in NYC.

March 21, 2018
Estonian Performance Artists and Printmakers Performed in New York and Chicago

The NON GRATA group of Estonian performance artists presented their work at Last Frontier in NYC's Greenpoint with the name: The People's Bible and the Circus: Panem Circles , and then at the Chicago Defibrillator Gallery and Alternative Nation. On March 16th, the Estonian printmaking exhibition was opened at Zhou Brother Art Center. [Translated from Estonian]

October 11, 2017
New York City opens its doors for Open House 2017- in pictures

Kingsland Wildflowers on Last Frontier NYC 's roof: (…) a garden on top of a film studio, beside Newtown Creek in Greenpoint, north Brooklyn. Its setting amid industrial buildings gives it a sci-fi feel, but it has a down-to-earth purpose. The garden is part of an environmental project to give birds and insects a green corridor through the city.

June 1, 2017
Performance Artists Probe East Asian Identity and Power Dynamics

On ITINERANT’s opening night, at the 19-month-old Greenpoint performance venue Last Frontier NYC , Jerico Domingo presented Consume Me, a work about US consumerism as it relates to ethnic food and identity. The annual nine-day Itinerant Performance Art Festival , first held in 2010 and organized by Hector Canonge , wrapped late May in Flushing Meadows Park but still remains on our minds as one of the city’s more diverse performance art events.

May 9, 2017
World Tour of the Non Grata and Al Paldroki Performance:
The Creative Process is Often Reminiscent of a Spy Movie

NON GRATAand Al Paldroki’sperformance arton the world-wide stage often recalls spy movies. Legendary NON GRATA and performance artist Al Paldrok are once again world famous and bring together hundreds and even thousands of art enthusiasts around the world. Last Frontier NYC, hosted the Scandinavian Performance Summer in Brooklyn. [Translated from Estonian]

January 18, 2017
7 Places to Go in NYC to Hibernate from Inauguration Day

7. Go to a Love-in: We all know that what the world needs now is love – not a billionaire demagogue. With that in mind, arts collective Last Frontier NYC is hosting We Shall Overcome: An Inauguration of Love on January 20. ‘Be the beauty we wish to see in the world’.

June 2016
In the Air: New York

She founded NOoSPHERE Arts, a nonprofit exhibition and performance venue, on the Lower East Side, a collaborative arts platform called Last Frontier NYC as well as Mothership NYC, an arts collective in Brooklyn.

December 31, 2015
2015 WAS GOLDEN: TOP PICKS

Just what the doctor ordered. A prescriptive performance at a rooftop party in Greenpoint. (…) Video was projected onto a nearby brick façade, a DJ played danceable tunes, and a duo who go by ReFemme , met with patients in an unassuming white tent, set up near the revelers. Even if it didn’t necessarily look that interesting to me initially, I was intrigued enough to put my name down on a list and see what was going on within the otherwise private tent. […] How lovely that in a busy, competitive city that never sleeps, on a rooftop, under the moon shining over Greenpoint, I was reminded through this simple performative gesture that I’m more than OK.

October 14, 2015 
Whispering Voices at Last Frontier NYC

"A ritual for our time" - presented by six artists in Last Frontier's industrial space. This Sunday Last Frontier NYC opened its inaugural exhibit, a multi-sensory performance and installation entitled Whispering Voices featuring works of large-scale painting, sculpture, film, sound, and dance at their beautiful post-industrial loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

October 6, 2015
ArtRx NYC

Last Frontier NYC, a new art venue that occupies a large, former industrial space in Greenpoint, opens this weekend and celebrates its inauguration with an evening of live performances by five artists. Featuring musical works by Katy Gunn, aerial performance art by Autumn Kioti , and digital animation by Richard Borge that each takes the human form as their starting point, the evening seems like it’s going to be pretty high-energy, packed with immersive, audience-involved presentations.

October 2015
EVENTS: Whispering Voices

Six artists with a vision coming together from different disciplines to create a unique art experience. This multidisciplinary collaboration will take place at Last Frontier NYC: a huge, charismatic former industrial space with a rich patina built up on the exposed brick over the past hundred years, located at the final outpost of industrial New York in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.

October 5, 2014
Using Instagram as Her Weapon

«She posted her drawings on Instagram, where she has quickly racked up close to 35,000 followers. Since she started her project in April, she has created about 100 drawings. Next week, 70 of these will be on display in her solo show at NOoSPHERE Arts in New York. [Translated from Norwegian]

September 8, 2014
A Little Piece of Norway

For three years, Norwegian artists have gathered at NOoSPHERE Arts in New York. The venue has served as a meeting point and arena for the Norwegian art scene in New York since 2011, when visual artist Sol Kjøk opened the gallery. To date, 205 artists — most of them Norwegians —  have shown their works here. [Translated from Norwegian]

May 28, 2014
No Wave, the NO Way

«NOoSPHERE Arts in New York has enormous potential. […] A great many things have taken place within these walls since its inception in 2011. […] As a presentation platform for Norwegian contemporary art in New York City, it has long been proven that this arena works better than anyone had ever dreamed. […] The history of the gallery building and, not least, the way the project got started, is as magical and movie-size as the effects it has produced. We are talking instant myth here: Artist Sol Kjøk keeps chasing and nagging a hard-boiled real estate developer until he caves in and ends up joining their team. As far as narrative technique, this story resides in a grey zone between Jorge Luis Borges and Sophie Calle.  [Translated from Norwegian]

February 4, 2014
Change the Rules, Now !

For three years, NOoSPHERE has served as a platform for Norwegian art in New York, exhibiting a broad variety of artists and art forms ranging from her own work to Kurt Johannessen and Morten Traavik. Agnes Nedregård is one of several performance artists who have shown work in the gallery backyard. The venue has been reviewed in leading publications such as Artforum [sic] and The New York Times . Last summer, The Huffington Post ranked the space as a Top 5 art venue to visit in New York City. [Translated from Norwegian ]

October 8, 2013
From Six Countries, via Norway, to New York

"Six women artists living in Norway participate in the exhibition The Unbearable Richness of Gray to mark the 100th anniversary of universal suffrage in Norway. NOoSPHERE Arts is a Norwegian-run gallery in New York. In this exhibition, the celebration of 100 years of women’s right to vote forms a framework for topics that we consider to be important in our times. " [Translated from Norwegian]

October 7, 2013
Norwegian Voices from New York

«Six artists are traveling from Norway to New York to celebrate voting rights for women. The group exhibition The Unbearable Richness of Grey opened on Friday in New York's NOOSPHERE Arts, a gallery for Norwegian contemporary art. While from different backgrounds, the six exhibitors have in common being female and educated in the liberated country of Norway. In New York, they celebrate voting rights for women. "New York is the world's melting pot where people from all over the world come together," says Roghieh Asgari. […] Mariken Kramer won the Fine Art Prize awarded at the National Norwegian Autumn Exhibition for the installation piece Patterns of Inclusion » [Translated from Norwegian]

September 30, 2013
The Unbearable Richness of Grey

Opens at NOoSPHERE Arts in New York on October 4th. The exhibition features works by six multicultural women artists from Oslo, all trained at Norwegian art academies. The exhibition aims to show that gender equality issues are more nuanced than how it may seem during this anniversary year for voting rights. Asgari Torvund believes that showing these artists exploring the topic at a Norwegian gallery in New York is quite unique. "This is a Norwegian outpost in New York, and through the gallery, I have already obtained connections with American curators." [Translated from Norwegian]

August 5, 2013
Hip-hop for the Survival of the Language

Nils has recently visited New York, the cradle of Hip Hop, where he talked to BBC about his love of music, his creative process, and why rap could save his region's ancient cultures and traditions.

August 5, 2013
Sami Rap Featured on BBC

"Nils Rune "Slincraze" Utsi from Maze met with the BBC in New York. ‘I feel it's one of my duties to teach people to be proud of being Sami. People’s reactions to my music are all positive. They are interested in hearing something different, even if they don’t understand the words I'm rapping. They understand the rhythm and they understand the feeling. The music has a language,’ says Utsi to the BBC. [Translated from Norwegian] 

August 5, 2013
Slincraze Was Interviewed by the BBC

In January he was nominated for the 2013 Sámi Artist of the Year Award by Sápmi Music and Scene Finnmark. You can see the BBC's three-minute long video interview here. [Translated from Norwegian]

August 4, 2013
Rapping to Preserve a Nearly Extinct Arctic Language

Nils Rune Utsi is the founding member of Slincraze, a rap group from Maze, a village in northern Norway. They rap in Sami, a language spoken by less than 20,000 people. Their goal is to save their language and culture and to fight stereotypes about the people of the region. The BBC caught up with Utsi in New York City.

June 26, 2013

Interview in Norwegian with Sami rapper SlinCraze about his NYC concerts at NOoSPHERE Arts and Mothership NYC, as well as the upcoming documentary about his life, Arctic Superstar ,  which was heralded by Vice as One of Ten Documentaries to See

June 20, 2013
Viking Rappers

The fundamental attitude of Hip-Hop is one of representing the culture and language of the place that the artist is from. This exhibition pays homage to the enormous influence Hip-Hop had on the tiny communities of these fjords. Through the images, the viewer can gain a better understanding of how these particular Norwegians, who hail from a place that is the polar opposite of that of their American counterparts, utilized Hip-Hop as a medium to express themselves.

June 22, 2013
Sami Hip-Hop & Norwegian Viking Rappers with Brooklyn Boost

Simen Braathen says: ‘We did not know how a Sami rap concert would be received in Brooklyn, where it seems as though half the locals are rappers themselves. But suddenly, more than 300 people showed up to watch the movie and listen to SlinCraze live. It was mindblowing when the guys got a whole roof full of people to jump in rhythm with Sami rap.’ Together with his photographer partner Martin Rustad Johansen, the 28-year-old from Helgeroa proudly opened the Viking Rappers show in a SoHo [sic] gallery last Friday, a photo exhibit documenting Norwegian rappers in their home environments. [Translated from Norwegian]

June 19, 2013
Surprises the United States with Viking Rap

The photo exhibition in NYC this week has generated a lot of attention. On opening night, rapper Slincraze was performing together with bandmate Ovlla and the joik singer Jon Mikkel Eira. They got the audience all fired up. ‘It was a magical moment when a sea of Americans joiked in unison,’ says Braathen. [Translated from Norwegian]

June 18, 2013
Viking Rappers Spellbind New York

This weekend saw the opening of the photo exhibition Viking Rappers: From New York to the North Pole . There, New Yorkers discovered how rap, which originated in their hometown, found its way to Norwegian urban and – in particular – rural areas. And opening the ball: A rapper from the northernmost Sami region, Slincraze, aka Nils Rune Utsi, who is also the protagonist of the documentary Arctic Superstar. Slincraze is a rock-solid artist with many concerts under his belt, so he knows exactly how to make the audience jump, dance or joik along in unison. ‘I also think there is something about the guys’ honesty that really hits home with the audience. Both in the movie and on stage, they show a genuine joy in doing what they do,’ says Braathen. [Translated from Norwegian]

June 14, 2013
PHOTOGRAPHY: The Northern Face of Hip Hop, Viking Rappers

As NOoSPHERE Gallery notes, the rappers ‘use hip-hop as an instrument to revitalize their nearly extinct language.’ The exhibit will present photographs, a documentary film, and a live performance by SLINCRAZE.

June 14, 2013
P4 Interview

Radio interview [in Norwegian] on the occasion of the opening of the Viking Rappers exhibition at NOoSPHERE Arts in NYC.

June 14, 2013
Norway in the US/Twitter

Viking Rappers, you say? Tonight, a sneak preview of rare ‪#arctic hip-hop. ‪http://www.nyc-arts.org/events/65752/viking-rappers-from-new-york-to-the-north-pole … Photos by ‪@Martin_Johansen @SimenBraathen

June 13, 2013
New York Photo Exhibition on Norwegian Rap

If you are in New York City, NOOSPHERE Arts is definitely the place to be this weekend. This is where to catch the brand-new photo exhibit Viking Rappers: From New York to the North Pole with pictures of a wide array of Norwegian rappers. [Translated from Norwegian]

June 12, 2013
NYC-ARTS Top Five: River To River, La Bienal, and Viking Rappers

Interesting. Unusual. Uniquely NYC . The NYC-ARTS top five is your cheat sheet to what’s hot before it hits the radar. […] Vik ing Rappers: From New York to the North Pole  at NOoSPHERE. Photographer Martin Johansen and director Simen Braathen spent the last two years following Norwegian rap artists to document what happens when different music and cultures mix. Braathen’s film Máze Represent! [Now: Arctic Superstar] tells the story of how Slincraze — a rap group from a small Arctic village — uses hip-hop to fight negative stereotypes and bring back their dying language. At the gallery’s sneak preview (exhibition opens in the fall), Slincraze will perform live in a language spoken by fewer than 15,000 people on earth.

December 12, 2012
Giving Thanks with Michael Alan

Michael Alan , Jerry Rid and I were sitting on the floor of NOoSPHERE Art Space trying to piece together the past two months. We met during Thanksgiving week before his second Living Installation that month - entitled Thanks-Living . He said to me in October, ‘The only thing in my heart is love anymore. I want to go forward with that and let it come out of everything I do from now on.’

December 10, 2012
When Art Comes Alive

Take a look inside Michael Alan's Living Installation art performances, which harness the raw creative energy reminiscent of NYC's 80s and 90s art scene. Alan is currently doing a residency at NOoSPHERE Art Space, in the back room, working at night at 251 East Houston Street in the Lower East Side, where he put on his most recent Living Installation, titled "Thanks-Living", a tribute to one of his main performers who recently passed away.

Vol. 4, 2012
Art about July 22 in New York

Parallax Views at Sol Kjøk’s gallery. NO in New York in January 2012 was the first curated exhibition that addressed artists’ response to the [terrorist acts] of July 22, 2011. Ten Norwegian artists with foreign backgrounds commented on the tragedy with photo, performance, videos and installations. The angle was terrorism and immigration. [Translated from Norwegian]

July 20, 2012
My Workplace

Artist Sol Kjøk works as an artist and director of the Norwegian gallery NOoSPHERE Arts in NYC. [Her office] is in a jungle-like artist collective in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her exhibition And The World Cracked Open is currently up through August 8. ‘In those special moments when I feel really in touch with my paintings, it's like a crack opens where I can access a source over which I have no control. This may be an unfashionable thing to say in certain art circles, where much of the output is theory based, but that kind of art is not what I find nourishing.  [Translated from Norwegian]

July 6, 2012
Morten Traavik and Peter Fend: Power Games

This non-profit storefront opened in 2011 as a showcase for Norwegian artists but expands its scope with a two-man show of work by Peter Fend, a world-wandering American artist, and Morten Traavik, a theater director and artist based in Scandinavia. […] If Mr. Traavik’s work is one of fixed, scripted, photographable acts, Mr. Fend’s is composed of focused, organic, barely capturable thought, an element that, while undervalued in the present stuck-on-objects moment, is the main ingredient in serious, history-shifting art. (Exhibition review by Holland Cotter)

June 2012
NORTH KOREA BEYOND IMAGES

POWER GAMES , currently on view at NOoSPHERE Arts, offers us a possible exit from the mirror palace of media images via multimedia installations that transpose North Korea into unfamiliar settings. POWER GAMES is a collaborative product of the Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, the US artist Peter Fend, and the curator Yulia Tikhonova. The most eye-catching are Fend’s graphite drawing and Traavik’s imposing photographic triptych which face each other across the gallery space.

No. 5, 2012
.NO Has Become NOoSPHERE Arts

The artist-run exhibition venue in New York changed its name to NOoSPHERE Arts during the summer. The name change was occasioned by the fact that the gallery now expands its scope from showing Norwegian contemporary art to an international exhibition program. " Norwegian art will remain our primary focus. But it is very important that the Norwegian artists are integrated into a broader context to attract the interest of the New York art world, which is our target audience, says founding director Sol Kjøk to Billedkunst . [Translated from Norwegian]

No. 2, 2012
3 Artists in New York: Sol Kjøk, Painter

"To date, her work has been featured in more than 100 exhibitions worldwide. She has held eight solo shows at museums, art centers and galleries in several countries, and her works are in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Drawing Museum in Laholm, Sweden. Her work is currently being featured in a museum exhibition in Manila. Kjøk also runs the exhibition venue .NO, something she kind of fell into without any prior ambitions of running a gallery. Thus far, the gallery has shown the works of more than 50 Norwegian artists. Our niche is art from elsewhere. Not only Norwegian artists, but also creatives from other countries who have yet to gain a foothold in New York. [Translated from Norwegian]

April, 2012
Nordic Life | Sol Kjøk: Artist

Kjøk traveled the world studying painting and art history before moving to the Big Apple in 1996. Last year, she opened .NO ‒ a nonprofit gallery dedicated to giving Norwegian and Scandinavian artists exposure within the New York art scene. ‘The gallery shows a broad range of mediums, including painting, drawing, performance, video, sculpture, installation, conceptual art and political art.’

February 8, 2012
Pia MYrvOLD at .NO Gallery

The scene at .NO Gallery in the Lower East Side was a sober sight this morning as artist Pia Myrvold and I entered. Last night was the opening of her current exhibit Immersion, which left behind empty bottles and the air of a successful event. The gallery manager arrived, and our conversation soon revolved around pushing boundaries through digital art and the use of 3D technology, taking inspiration from centuries of sculpture, and moving art into "our time" through animation and technology.

February 3, 2012
Pia Myrvold - FLOW

New York’s non-profit NO. Gallery will from tonight house a tunnel structure comprised of 77 LED screens and other abstract multimedia compositions for Pia Myrvold’s dazzling and immersive exhibition, FLOW. Exploring 3D media in many of its luminous forms, FLOW offers an unforgiving, retina-burning interdisciplinary experience. Myrvold took Wonderlandthrough her complex new project. ‘Many commercial galleries are afraid – due to their fragile economic circumstances – to take risks with new work and new artist. So the non-profit makes sense today, as these people are not in it for the money, but for the art’ .

February 1, 2012
Takes Nordic Decay Home from Manhattan

The exhibition is a collaboration with Ramfjord Gallery. Gallery Ramfjord showcased eight artists in New York, while five artists associated with .NO came to Oslo for an exhibition there. The openings both in Oslo and in NYC were packed and the crowd was excited. ‘The Beautiful Maladies show was discovered by several art world professionals. We are talking with a well-established, commercial gallery that wants to represent some of these artists. That is entirely in line with my wishes for .NO, which is intended to be a platform where Norwegian artists can gain exposure to important players in the NYC art world who can take them further,’ says Kjøk. [Translated from Norwegian]

January 30, 2012
Norwegian Cyber Art in New York

Pia Myrvold from Stavanger is a multidisciplinary artist with the world as her arena. Last fall in Basel in Switzerland, this January in Los Angeles. On Saturday, she opens a big show in New York. She combines 3D media, painting and sculpture to create new artistic experiences. She currently has a strong presence in the United States. She is an artist who works with large and demanding projects. With the work Flow , Myrvold has created an advanced virtual world for the senses where she wants to bring a poetic dimension into the everyday world of the computer." [Translated from Norwegian]

January 8, 2012
Reconciliation Art

Roghieh Asgari Torvund uses her own sorrow as a driving force for survival. She is now participating, along with nine other Norwegian artists, in a New York exhibition centered on [the terror acts of] 22 July, 2011: This Friday, Parallax Views opened at gallery .NO in New York, where Asgari contributes two video installations. [Translated from Norwegian]

January 6, 2012
Olsson Recommends

"Parallax Views " curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa at the nonprofit gallery .NO in New York. Seeking to illuminate the underlying issues leading up to July 22, 2011, the approach behind Parallax Views appears to be one of the necessary projects. These questions must be asked, even in this period of intense, self-imposed censorship under a regime of lame collective over-tolerance. Hence, I believe this distanced examination seen at a remove from New York can really be meaningful. [Translated from Norwegian]

January 5, 2012
From Oslo to New York – and Back

The artist exchange between Oslo and New York has been one of the well‐established gallery’s major projects this fall. Gallery owner Elisabeth Ramfjord curated the exhibit Beautiful Maladies , comprised of eight artists from her own stable in Oslo, and introduced them to the New York art world at .NO Gallery in Manhattan. In return, artist Sol Kjøk, who is the prime mover behind .NO, put together Out on a Limb , a show of Norwegian artists residing abroad, for presentation at Gallery Ramfjord in Oslo. ‘As you know, Norwegian artists are dying to show in New York. And many of the Norwegian artists residing overseas would also like to exhibit in their home country. In other words, this is a win‐win situation,’ says Elisabeth Ramfjord, and adds that the Oslo leg of the exchange, Out on a Limb , has attracted a great many visitors.

January 3, 2012
Boxing Memories to New York

"Sabina Jacobsson's film Boxing Memories is featured in New York. It is a non-linear video. ‘No matter where you enter the movie, you can see what it’s about and join the discussion. This subject is important and touches all of us,’ said Sabina Jacobsson.  [Translated from Norwegian]

January 3, 2012
Exhibition Addressing July 22, 2011

On January 5th, the Norwegian-Iranian artist travels to New York to exhibit at the gallery .NO, where she will also present a performance piece centered on the use of hijabs. Titled Parallax Views , the exhibition explores challenging issues in the wake of the terrorist acts that occurred [in Oslo] on July 22, 2011. What is cultural diversity in a Norwegian context? What questions remain unanswered in this debate? And what are the solutions from an immigrant perspective? [Translated from Norwegian]

January 2, 2012
New York Exhibition on Norwegian Terrorism

Performance artist Roghieh Asgari Torvund is one of ten Norwegian artists featured in the exhibition Parallax Views . The show is curated by American Koan Jeff Baysa, based in New York. He believes that the exhibition can bring to light interesting aspects about terrorism and immigration. Sol Kjøk, founding director of the nonprofit gallery. NO, thinks the audience will be able to relate to this selection of artistic expressions. [Translated from Norwegian]

January, 2012
Perspective

The nonprofit gallery .NO on East Houston Street, New York, opens the exhibition Parallax Views next Friday. Ten visual artists who completed their art education in Norway - and now reside there - express their reflections on Norwegian society before and after the tragedy of July 22. The exhibition stays up through January 29. [Translated from Norwegian]

December 31, 2011
To New York with Art about July 22nd

A tribute to freedom is what Torvund calls her performance Disrobement , which she is now taking to New York. It has been shown in a number of venues. [Translated from Norwegian]

No. 6 , 2011
Indomitable Female Power

Pia Myrvold has accomplished something few other artists have done before her. She organized her own Venice Biennale alongside the official Venice Art Biennale. The exhibition Pia Myrvold FLOW - A Work in Motion in Venice from June 4 through September this year was seen by more than 4000 people. The FLOW installations will be showcased in LACDA, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, from January 12 to February 25, and in Sol Kjøk’s venue .NO in New York from February 3 to March 3, 2012. [Translated from Norwegian]

December 16, 2011
Pack of Wolves at Ramfjord Galleri

Ellen Bang, Gitte Dæhlin, Anki King, Sol Kjøk & Björn Hegardt: Out on a Limb , a show of five artists at Gallery Ramfjord in Oslo.  [Translated from Norwegian]

Sep 19, 2011
Norway Now in NYC at gallery .NO

On Thursday, I went to the opening of Norway Now in NYC , a group show of Norwegian artists at the gallery .NO on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. An exhibition worthy of the highest recommendations, with several interesting surprises, put together by one of my favorite galleries in all of New York City. [Translated from Spanish]

Fall Issue, 2012
Art After Terror

The ACTION–ReACTION exhibition at .NO, a Lower East Side gallery dedicated to Norwegian artists, aims to explore power relations. .NO also creates a link to the 7/22 acts of terrorism in Norway–stating that some pieces can be seen as contributions to a collective mourning process. The ambiguity this linkage creates, of what is or is not terrorism-inflected, is only increased by omission of dates on artwork labels and by two eye-catching works on opposite ends of the space that explicitly refer to the attacks. With this in mind, interpretation separate from the Oslo-Utøya attacks is left as kin to ignoring the 800 lb. pink explosive in the room.

Summer Issue, 2011
NORTH STARS Series

.NO, an artist-initiated, nonprofit gallery that opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in February, concluded its NORTH STARS Series of exhibitions with a show entitled RED. Each exhibition has included both visual and performance artists with a shared geographic origin: Norway. The title of the series is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Polaris—Norwegian artists are, of course, the guiding lights of the art world! But implicit is also the fallacy of the notion of one leading direction in the arts: with more than one steering star, who knows where true north lies?

No. 7/2011
Oh! Oh! Oh! Things Are Going Better .NO

Opening a gallery in Manhattan is like transporting sand to the Sahara, unless you bring something new to the island. Visual artist Sol Kjøk, the Founding Director of .NO, says that she wants to give Norwegian artists a showcase in Manhattan. Presumably, this ambition includes the goal to present something the audience wouldn’t otherwise get to see, something genuinely Norwegian. This exhibition is built around the dance group iRo's performance RE-ACTION , and aims to comment on power relations. [Translated from Norwegian]

June 20, 2011
Norway's Most Popular Gallery Is in New York

A little piece of Norway in Manhattan. The gallery is called .NO and is a new venue for Norwegian artists in New York. ‘Inquiries from artists wanting to show here just keep pouring in.’ She looks fit, Sol Kjøk. Her hair is messy after her bike ride from Brooklyn to this busy Manhattan street. [...] The artist who moved from Valdres when she was 18 is terribly busy. During the span of the past six months, she has become a gallerist. A very popular one. It may seem as though the entire Norwegian art scene wants to go to NYC to exhibit their work." [Translated from Norwegian]

Vol. 88, 2011
NEW YORK .NO

Visual artist, curator, art historian and writer Sol Kjøk is behind the most ambitious Norwegian art initiative in New York this spring. A total of 28 Norwegian contemporary artists were featured in THE NORTH STARS Series: Blue, White & Red at the .NO gallery in Manhattan. As a bonus round, the gallery added the exhibition BLACK: Bold, Beautiful & Badass with the Norwegian artists Anna Christina Lorenzen, Jannicke Låker, Vanna Bowles and Ellen Bang on May 19th. ‘Gallery patrons often make remarks along the lines of: ‘This is so fresh. So different!’ Well-known curators such as Dan Cameron and Franklin Sirmans have expressed their interest, and all our openings and other events have been completely packed,’ says Sol Kjøk." [Translated from Norwegian]

April 1, 2011
Seks and the City

New York tops the list of Norwegians’ favorite cities, and around 5,000 live in The Big Apple. Meet six adventurers who have created new lives in the metropolis. Artist Sol Kjøk has founded the gallery .NO on East Houston Street. ‘Here in New York, I get to live out aspects of my personality that I was unable to express in the mountains of Valdres’, says Sol Kjøk. [Translated from Norwegian]

April 2011
In the Trade

Norwegian artist Sol Kjøk has opened the gallery .NO on East Houston Street in New York. Her aim is to gain recognition in the US for Norwegian artists who are already well known in their native country. Norway’s office for Contemporary Art is one of the gallery’s backers.

February 8, No. 1/2011
Gallery .NO in New York

A new artist-run gallery called .NO opened in early February on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York. The Norwegian artist Sol Kjøk is behind the initiative, and Italian art historian Serena Ghilardi has been brought onboard as daily manager, while artist and author Kjetil Skøien will serve as project coordinator. The inaugural exhibition series is titled The North Stars . Frank Brunner, André von Morisse, Mikkel Wettre, Stefan Schröder, Åsil Bøtun, Lotte Konow Lund, Ane Graff, Finn Graff and Kurt Johannessen are among the artists shown. [Translated from Norwegian].

January 17, 2011
New Gallery for Norwegian Art in New York

"In early February, a new artist-run gallery opens on the Lower East Side in Manhattan (NY). The gallery is called .NO and will show artists who are well established in Norway, but not yet known in the American art scene. Norwegian artist Sol Kjøk is behind the initiative, and Italian art historian Serena Ghilardi has been brought onboard as daily manager, while artist and author Kjetil Skøien will serve as project coordinator for .NO. [Translated from Norwegian]