Exhibition by Vebjørn Sand

Open until 1st March 2014
Gallery Sand
277 West. 4th St, New York
NY 10014
T: 1-212-414-8714
T: 1-347-419-0729

Vebjørn Sand is best known for his public art projects such as the phenomenal success of a 1997 winter outdoor exhibit of paintings from two expeditions to Antarctica. The installation, called “Trollslottet,” attracted 150,000 visitors, becoming the largest audience for an art exhibition by a contemporary artist in Norwegian history. His second public project, The Kepler Star, has become a symbol of Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport after inaugurating the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. His third project, the Leonardo Bridge Project, is the first civil engineering project based on a Leonardo da Vinci design to ever be constructed. The graceful footbridge just outside Oslo has been called “a bridge to everywhere...” by the Wall Street Journal and “...one of the five most beautiful bridges in the world” by Wired Magazine. Sand envisions building distinctive bridges in communities around the world based on Leonardo da Vinci’s elegant geometry, like variations on a brilliant passage of music.

In 2006, Sand returned for his third trip to Antarctica where he built an ice bridge to call attention to the fragility of the subcontinent and create a vibrant artistic response in the dialogue on global climate change. In In 2007, Vebjørn continued this theme by creating another ice bridge at the United Nations in New York. In 2009, he went on to build a bridge in Greenland and yet again at the COP15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen.

Vebjørn’s goal for the past 15 years has been to see Leonardo’s Bridge erected in Istanbul where it was originally planned in 1502.

 

CV

Education
National Academy of Art in Oslo
Academy of Art in Prague
The Art Students League of New York

Vebjørn has been a student of the Norwegian painters Walther Aas and Rolf Schønfeldt and American painters, Ronald Sherr, Peter Cox and Michael Burban, as well as Frank Porcu.

Solo Exhibitions
GALLERY SAND – 2000 – 2006; Numerous solo exhibitions (Oslo / Norway)
“AD FONTES: The Art and Projects of Vebjørn Sand” (Four-city US Tour)
– American Institute of Architects Headquarters Gallery, Washington, DC ( 1998)
– Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN (1999)
– SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1999)
– Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA (1999)
The Troll Castle (“Trollslottet”) Oslo, Norway Winter 1997-1998
Norwegian Days in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, 1996
Kunsthuset, Oslo, Norway 1994, 1992 1991 1988
Ad Fontes, Oslo, Norway 1987

Group Exhibitions
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK, Leonardo Bridge Project, 2006
Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, USA, Leonardo Bridge Project, 2006
Denver Museum of Science & Nature, Denver, USA, Leonardo Bridge Project, 2006
Astrup-Fernley Museum, Oslo, Norway, Leonardo Bridge Project, 1998
Koiso Ryohei Exhibit, Osaka, Japan 1996
Henie-Onstad Senteret, Høvikodden, Norway 1990
Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, Norway 1987
Henie-Onstad Senteret, Høvikodden, Norway 1987

Public Projects
The Ice Bridge, Leonardo Bridge Project, COP15, Copenhagen, 2009
The Ice Bridge, Leonardo Bridge Project, Greenland, 2009
The Ice Bridge, Leonardo Bridge Project, The United Nations, NYC 2007-2008
The Ice Bridge, Leonardo Bridge Project, Antarctica, 2006
The Norwegian Leonardo Project, Oslo, Norway, 2001
The Kepler Star (“Norwegian Peace Star”) Oslo, Norway, 2000
The Troll Castle (“Trollslottet”) Oslo, Norway 1997-98

Expeditions
Greenland, 2009
Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 2006
Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1996
South Rondane, Antarctica, 1997