Nikolai Torgersen
Nikolai Torgersen is a Norwegian artist who lives and works in Oslo, Norway. He works in various media such as painting, drawing, sculpture and installation.
Torgersen's body of work is rooted in an expressive, figurative tradition on one hand. On the other, he is known for his autobiographical, confessional work.His personal voice and history plays a fundamental role in his artistry. Trauma, social conditions, substance abuse as well as personal choice and responsibility are all central in Torgersen's work.
Torgersen mixes high and low detail figures and motifs in his work. In his paintings and drawings, for instance, we often see transparent, simplified figures, almost doodle-like, clinch with higher detail motifs. What we see when we look at the world is but a simplified, subjective version. A glimpse of everything there is, reminding us that we can never grasp it all, let alone what other people are seeing or experiencing. His work takes on how we see the world filtered through our own personal experiences.
In some of his installations he has recreated settings from his lowest points, building upon a Young British Artist-tradition of exhibiting the most intimate and personal. Especially thinking of Tracy Emin's Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1995) and My Bed (1998). With this, he has managed to establish a personal connection with his audience.