Eva Laila Hilsen - Norway

Eva Laila Hilsen is a graduate of the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo under professor and director Zdenka Rusova, printmaking, Drawing at the National College of Applied Arts and Crafts, and educated teacher in art at the High School in Hamar/Notodden. She is a member of the Norwegian Visual Artists, the Association of Norwegian Graphic Artists, The Association of Norwegian Painters, and The Drawing Art Association of Norway.

Eva Laila Hilsen made her debut in 1987 with the exhibition "Underway" in Bodø Art Association. Since, there have been more than forty/fifty solo exhibitions of her works in private and public galleries, nationally and internationally.
Important solo exhibitions in Norway since 1991 till 2018, Grimstad Art Association at the ”Henrik Ibsen Festival”, the ”Literature Festival”, Lillehammer, and Dei Nynorske Festspela, Ørsta, at the playwright/dramatist Jon Fosse's 50 anniversary, festival exhibitor. Hordaland International Art Centre 3,14, Bergen "Blue". Gallery BI-Z, Kristiansand. Aalesund and Molde Art Association, "A room-A house and "fragments". Gallery Ismene, Trondheim. Nord Trøndelag county gallery, Namsos, The Drawing Art Association of Norway, Oslo and The Art Bank/Kunstbanken, Hamar with "Directive". The Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo "silentium". Nord-Østerdal Museum, "Houses". Møre og Romsdal Artist Center, Molde.

Important solo exhibitions abroad; 2018 Cloister Galleria, Ferrara, Italy, "the wheel of life". 2017 Associazione Culturale Internazionale Atelier 3+10, Mestre/Venice, "trans form a tion". Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and Potchefstroom Museum, South-Africa "Blå, Blue, Bleu". Is Bankasi Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul "meeting between two cities".

She has participated in a series of group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Statens Høstutstilling , National Autumn Exhibition, Øst- og Vestlandsutstillingen, and Trøndelag Exhibition.
Graphic art Biennales and Triennials in Italy, IV International Small Engraving Exhibition, Cremona. Premio Leonardo Sciscia amateur d'estampes, Milano. Premio Internationale Biella Per Licisione, Biella. Further in Brasil, Canada, Egypt, France, Finland, International Print Triennial 97, Cracow. Poland, New Zealand, Portugal, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. In 2009 she took part in the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius, Lithuania. She has participated with an installation in a German garden project in Darmstadt “KlangARTen”. University Art Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia. Pleiades Gallery, New York. Voluptas, Statna Galeria, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Edition Basel, Gallery Oniris, Dijon, France. Artika-The 8th Edition, Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso, Italy and Associazione Culturale Internazionale Atelier 3+10, Mestre/Venice, "Memento Andy".


Her works have been bought by private and official collectors, public arts organisations in Norway, the Norwegian Cultural Council, Art in Schools, Nynorsk Cultural Center, as well as a series of municipalities and councils. She is represented in The National Museum of Cracow, the State Gallery of Fine Arts in Cairo, the University Gallery of Windhoek, Namibia, the Cremona Civic Museum, Italy, and the Engraving Museum of Douro, Portugal.
Museum of Majdanek, Polen - Is Bankasi Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul, Turkey - Kunst i skolen (Art in School), Oslo, Norway - International Graphic Triennial, Fredrikstad, Norway - National Centre of Fine Arts, Museum of Cairo - The National Museum of Cracow, Polen - Tulipamwe International Artist’s Workshop, Namibia - Norwegian Art Council, Oslo - Nord-Trøndelag Fylkesgalleri, Namsos, Norway - Hedmark, Oppland and Sør-Trøndelag County, Norway - Schæffergården, The Foundation of Danish-Norwegian Collaboration, Denmark - Cremona Civic Museum, Italy - Engraving Museum of Douro, Portugal – Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway - Official and private collections.

She is the recipient of a series of artist scholarships and exhibition grants/funds from the Norwegian Cultural Council. Project grants/funds from Norway Graphic Artists. Hedmark and Oppland municipality Artists Scholarship. The Harriet Backer’s Memorial Fund, Blom grant, and she has also received travel grants to Paris, Berlin and Namibia. She is the recipient of artist in residencies stays at; Cité International des artes, Paris. International Artist Workshop in Namibia. DAAD, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst stipendium, Berlin. Fondazione Casa Atelier Bedigliora, Switzerland. Associazione Culturale Internazionale Atelier 3+10, Venice. Lademoen, Trondheim, Norway, and New York.

2018-19, selceted by finalists in USA, Italy and Germany. 2017 atelier 3+10, Venice second prize - 2006 Biennale Internationale d’art miniature, Salle Augustin, Canada - 50 artists selected of 600 artists, to participate in Musée de la Miniature de Montélimar, France - 2005 Gold medal Fine Arts International Exhibition, Gallery "Olezh", Kiev, Ukraine – 1997 Le 4e Triennale Mondiale, “d’Estampe Petit Format”, France - “Parchemin d’Honneur sa reconnaissance”.

Board- and jury member in different official visual art organisations in Norway since 1990-2015.

PRESENTATION

Since 1991, the house has been a central motif in Eva Laila Hilsens works. She uses the house as a form and also as a metaphor for the human being and life in general.
Her houses are sometimes upright, alone, strong and untouchable, or fragile and vulnerable. Sometimes they appear in small societies or clusters, either supported or disturbed by an intruding house, standing on its head or at an angle.

In her paintings, her colours are often complementary with nuances in between. She gets her inspiration from colors and patterns in nature, and borrow from nature’s ornamentation and symmetry, trying to impart nature’s light and pattern. She also pick up inspiration from her home place, the blue valley of Valdres, and from journeys in Norway and abroad. Often she uses the camera as a sketchbook.

She paints and prints a black and white element in her works, which, together with her tight frontal house forms, adds a softer and more organic expression to the works. Together with paintings, linocut/woodcuts and etchings in black and white as well as colourful lithography, she also works with drawings, mainly in pastel and charcoal. She works with series and her house is the theme.

She also uses novels and poems as inspiration. She has made an artist-book with woodcuts based on a poem by Sylvia Plath, "the Mushrooms", and have created two artist-books/portfolios based on texts by the Norwegian dramatist Jon Fosse. The contents/prints of this portfolios, "A Room-A House" and "Blue", Eit Rom-Eit Hus and Blå, are presented in her website, www.evalailahilsen.no - on the front page of here website, click on "previous homepage/works".

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