SIMON WÅGSHOLM
ART PRODUCTIONS
I am a visual artist and curator based in Ålesund, with a BA in Modern Art and Aesthetics from the University of Bergen. My debut took place at Ålesund Kunstforening in 2001 with the exhibition Betraktinger. Since then, I have explored the possibilities and limitations of painting, examining the tension between the figurative and the abstract—both as formal devices and as carriers of meaning.
In my practice, I am concerned with the relationship between humans and nature, alongside the dialogue between the artist and the material. I sense a parallel between the traces I leave on the canvas and the traces we leave in the landscape; both are imprints of human action. Perhaps this is why the transparent qualities of paint fascinate me—every brushstroke remains visible, an open and honest process where nothing is concealed. Figurative elements and abstract forms merge into one another, and I often challenge the boundary between painting and sculpture by exploring the canvas’s shape, structure, and spatial presence.
I have held numerous solo exhibitions, including as the Maijazz artist in Stavanger (2009), Sceneriesat Kunstmuseet Kube (2015), World Heritage at KHÅK Kunsthall (2018), Potemkin’s Parables at Galleri Langegården (2019), Landscapes at Solli Brug 2024 and Anicca at MRK in Molde (2025). I have also participated in a wide range of group exhibitions and collaborative projects, such as Tegn 2at Molde kunstnersenter (2009), the Vestlandsutstillingen (2012), Nordic Perspective at Ministry of Nomades in London (2018), and Barriere 1 & 2, a collaboration with Geir M. Brungot (2022). Additionally, I have completed two collaborative projects with Ørnulf Opdahl, in 2016 and 2022. In 2023, I participated in the Autumn Exhibition (Høstutstillingen) with the work Residue.
My works are included in collections such as Kunstmuseet Kube, the Grieg Collection, and the Sævik Collection. Since 2006, I have been an active member of the artist collective Aggregat in Ålesund.
Mission
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Upcoming exhibit
Contour of Being
Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter
18th April - 14th May 2026
Contours of Being is a collaborative project between the Møre and Romsdal Art Center in Molde, Norway and the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, California. Gathering artists from opposite sides of the world, it unfolds as a rich, interwoven exploration of experience, form, and the layered complexities of human presence.
Through diverse media—painting, abstraction, gesture, figuration, and performative mark-making—the works in this exhibition traverse the terrain between the palpable and the psychological, inviting viewers into a space where memory, embodiment, and materiality intersect.
At the heart of this exhibition is a shared interest in how marks and forms carry histories—personal, cultural, and aesthetic—and how these histories shape perception. The contributing artists, each with a distinct voice and visual language, engage in a collective dialogue about the ways in which physical presence and remembered experience are inscribed onto surfaces, spaces, and bodies.
Each artist enters the conversation from a different direction, yet their practices touch at the edges, forming a constellation of gestures, atmospheres, and inner landscapes.