Visiting hours Wed-Sat from 12-4 and Sun from 11-2
Trygve Lie Gallery, 317 E 52nd St, NY, NY
Presented by the American Scandinavian Society
Curated by Audra Verona Lambert
“in the wild rush of spring” – an exhibition meditating on women, the natural world and the intrinsic links between them – features works on paper, painting and mixed-media works by artists Candace Jensen (Danish-American), Elisa Jensen (Danish-American), and Lisa Saeboe (Norwegian-American). Presented by the American Scandinavian Society and curated by Audra Verona Lambert, the exhibit is on view at Trygve Lie Gallery from Feb 5-28, 2025.
“in the wild rush of spring” is inspired by the Norwegian poet and cultural icon Hulda Garborg, who was an early Norwegian Feminist, writer and patron of the arts. She served as one of the country’s first ever Norwegian woman politicians. Lines from her poem “April” (from the publication, “Symra: den Blomen du Elsa”) consider the feelings inspired by the majesty of nature and the changing of the seasons, with an excerpt from the poem forming the exhibition’s title. “Women have always been inspired by – and exerted an impact on– the natural world, in ways reflected deftly by Garborg as much as by the artists included in the exhibition,” reflects Verona Lambert. “Myth tells the truth: where the historical canon may exclude women for centuries, divine figures such as Idun, Skadi and Freya – prominent goddesses in Norse Mythology – hold great power and significant roles in the natural world., reflecting enduring roles that women play in engaging with, protecting and stewarding contemporary environmental concerns at the global level, from Greta Thunberg and beyond.”
Works on view from Candace Jensen’s “Gaia Illuminations” and “New Scriptures” series honor the enduring presence of the natural world, “expand[ing] calligraphic illumination’s traditional cultural reliquary beyond that of anthropocentrism,” Jensen observes. Utilizing natural materials spanning from hand-made inks, gold leaf and other media, Jensen honors the significant depth of the canon of Deep Ecology with her transcendental and meditative works. Artist Elisa Jensen’s introspective paintings from her “Girls” series features young women writing in the sand along the seashore, touching the surface of water or otherwise communing with the environment. These moments feel unstructured and feature natural interactions between these girls and nature, transforming individual, personal experiences into universal ones. These moments reinforce the artist’s views on how art communicates.“Each artist brings the viewer into [their] own private world,” Jensen notes, “or renews our sense of what it means to be a human being.”[1] Lisa Saeboe is a multi-disciplinary artist whose works on paper, paintings and new media work present a holistic vision of Feminine power and its intrinsic associations with nature, with an emphasis on “our divine connection [with].. ecology.” Saeboe’s work frames transformation and self-realization as naturally organic processes directly linked with our presence in and of the natural world.
“in the wild rush of spring” remains on view at Trygve Lie Gallery, 317 E 52nd street at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church from February 5-28, 2025. Curator and artists will be present for a reception during the College Art Association Conference on Thursday, Feb 13 from 5-8 PM at the gallery. The exhibition honors the cultural impact women have exerted across Scandinavian arts and literature. “in the wild rush of spring” foregrounds women’s agency and ability to form an affinity with the natural world, free from intervention or societal restrictions.
[1]Rome Art Program. “Interview with Elisa Jensen.” Rome Art Program, Whatever It Takes. Accessed January 20, 2025. https://romeartprogram.org/interview-with-elisa-jensen/
Artist Candace Jensen | Candace Jensen is a multidisciplinary visual artist, writer, calligrapher, curator and organizer. Her work is grounded in animism, deep ecology, and building creative community. Represented by Amos Eno Gallery in Brooklyn, NY from 2018-2024, Jensen has also exhibited in San Francisco, Oakland, Antwerp, Manhattan, Southern Vermont and Hillsborough, NC. Reviews and interviews have appeared in Whitehot Magazine, Art New England, the Adroit Journal, ANTE Mag and Studio Visit Magazine. Her art and writing have been published by the Dark Mountain Project, Index Press Quarterly, Eratio Postmodern, Iterant Mag, the Earthkeepers’ Handbook (ecoartspace), and a forthcoming Cambridge Writers’ Workshop publication, Disobedient Futures via University Press of Kentucky. Jensen is cofounder and Creative Director of In Situ Polyculture Commons, an arts residency and regenerative culture catalyst. She also serves as Letterpress Director at Ruth Stone House in Goshen, VT and Art Editor for their poetry & art quarterly, Iterant Magazine. She lives and works on unceded Abenaki land in Southern Vermont, Turtle Island. www.candacejensen.com / www.insitupolyculture.org / iterant.org
Artist Elisa Jensen | Elisa Jensen is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She serves as co-atelier head, New York Studio School. The artist has received awards for her work from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Academy Museum, and The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jensen completed an undergraduate degree at Smith College, subsequently graduating from the New York Studio School. Major exhibitions have taken place at the Painting Center, Kimmel Gallery at NYU, Various Small Fires and other notable exhibition spaces. In 2008, she was an artist/curator for the group show, “Visions of the Figure” at Repetti Gallery, Long Island City, and was part of the exhibition “6 Danish Artists in New York” at Trygve Lie Gallery. Jensen was one of the inaugural group of artists to work in the “World Views” program at the World Trade Center, sponsored by the Manhattan Cultural Council, and is included in the publication Site Matters about the program artists. https://www.elisajensen.com/
Artist Lisa Saeboe | Lisa Saeboe is a visual artist, production designer, and filmmaker living and working in New York. Saeboe creates works that place the human body, often depicted in rictuses of pleasure, within the serpentine bondage of physics and natural law. Saeboe’s pieces span many scales and mediums, ranging from postcard-sized homages to vintage erotica to a sprawling vaulted-ceiling mural featuring dozens of mythic figures. Born and raised in Oslo, Norway, she graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2015. In addition to attending the NES Arts residency in Iceland, Saeboe has shown at NADA Art Fair in Miami, All Street Gallery and Elijah Wheat Showroom. https://www.lisa-saeboe.com/
Curator Audra Verona Lambert | Audra Verona Lambert is an American contemporary art curator who has worked with over 40 artists on 30+ exhibitions in New York City and beyond. She holds an MA in Art History and Visual Culture from Lindenwood University (2022,) previously having completed coursework for the MA, Art History at City College of New York. At City College, Lambert was awarded the Connor Study Abroad Fellowship, studying Danish-Norwegian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset in Europe, during which time she visited Documenta, Skulptur Projekte Münster and the Istanbul Biennial (2017.) She has curated exhibitions with Fountain House Gallery, the Center for Jewish History, FORMah (Form Art House,) Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and other institutions. Raised in South Louisiana, Lambert earned an undergraduate degree in Art History and Asian Studies from St Peter’s University (2009) and at Kansai Gaidai University (2008) in Hirakata City, Japan. Specializing in feminist topics and socially engaged practice, she has worked on projects and exhibitions from Dread Scott: The Impossibility of Freedom, More Art (2014) and Nicholasa Mohr at Harry Belafonte Library in East Harlem (2016) to Root Systems, Amos Eno Gallery (2022) foregrounding the enduring importance of artist collectives in New York City. https://www.antecedentprojects.com/
About Hulda Garborg | A prominent feminist living Kristiana – now Oslo, Norway – Hulda Garborg was born in 1822, living in Norway her entire life and becoming a prominent figure in the Folk-driven New Norwegian (Nynorsk) movement. She wrote over forty books, both in Nynorsk and in Bokmål (the two written standard Norwegian languages) paving the way for women in theater and literature in Norway, as well as politics — she was an early local politician in the 19th century. She co-founded the inimitable Det Norske Teatret, serving as its first board manager. A woman ahead of her time, the unbridled spirit of Hulda’s writings finds expression in the artworks comprising “in the wild rush of spring” – informed by a stanza from her poem, “April.”