Torbjørn Rødland

Torbjørn Rødland (born in Norway in 1970) is a Norwegian photographer known for his seemingly banal portraits and landcapes that move from the everyday into the otherworldly. Rødland has had solo exhibitions at Nils Stærk, Copenhagen; Algus Greenspon, New York; Air de Paris, Paris; MoMA P.S. 1, New York; and Michael Benevento in Los Angeles, amongst others. Rødland has also been featured in group exhibitions at Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; Gagosian Gallery, New York; Cruise & Callas, Berlin; and Triple V, Paris.

Rødland is currently represented by Algus Greenspon in New York; Michael Benevento in Los Angeles; and Nils Stærk in Copenhagen.

Background and Education

Rødland was born in 1970 in Stavanger, Norway. He studied at the National College of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway and the Rogakand University Centre in Stavanger, Norway. Rødland lives and works in Los Angeles.

Career

Rødland's photography moves from genre to genre; portrait, landscape, still life can all be found in his constructed imagery of the everyday, whether in his hometown or in his explorations of Americana. Originally known for his images of young beauties, rosy-cheeked and tanned, Rødland transcended this potential trope by consistently inventing new lures for viewers of his photographs.

An example of these lures is the subtle co-existence of the twisted with the warm normalcy of his figures; as seen in his photograph of a woman's hand with an octopus tentacle creeping through her sleeve and wrapped around her finger. Rødland's matter of factness, even in his stylized imagery, is what allows him to straddle both the commonplace and the otherworldly.

)

{{reflist}}