RAGNA BLEY

Bley’s painterly environments encourage you towards introspection, moving you between the concreteness of paint and other worldly places. Incorporating snow gathered from just outside her studio in Oslo, Bley soaks the snow in paint and waits for this to melt, connecting to a sense of movement between transience and permanence in her work. Snow becomes a medium by which Bley constructs and directs her canvases, tying her work to the Nordics in a literal and symbolic way. The parameters of paint, canvas, water, snow and the movement of her body and time, serve as the physical portals for Bley’s abstracted world-making.

The large, sweeping brushstrokes that define much of Bley’s recent work, are developed using spatulas and custom-made tools, rather than traditional brushes. This method induces a mechanical aspect which is controlled, but not fully, and allows for painterly gestures to be disguised. The paint absorbs into the canvas through the application of pressure and the passage of time. This process, and collaboration with the materials and their interactions, results in a dynamic tension between intention and unpredictability, giving the paintings a life of their own. The careful balance of technique and spontaneity speaks to Bley’s dedication to both the technical and emotional dimensions of her work, reinforcing her ability to navigate the forces she seeks to embody and explore.

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Ragna Bley (b. 1986, Uppsala, Sweden) is an artist based in Oslo working with painting, sculpture, text, and performance. She explores the oscillation between the familiar and alien, looking to narratives within biology, literature and science-fiction.

Bley received her BFA at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, in 2011 and her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London in 2015. Solo and two-person presentations include: Ragna Bley, OSL Contemporary, Oslo, Norway, (2024); Ragna Bley: Viridian Land, Pilar Corrias, London (2022); Stranger’s Eye, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2022); Ragna Bley & Inger Ekdahl, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2020); Zooid, Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øystese (2018); Zooid, Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo (2017) and Lay Open, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin (2017). Selected group exhibitions include: Abstraction (re)creation – 20 under 40, Le Consortium, Dijon (2024); The Hour of Reckoning, Henie Onstad Art Center, Bærum (2021); Tempo Tempo Tempo, Kistefosmuseet, Jevnaker (2019); The Moderna Exhibition 2018, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2018); The Oslo Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthall Oslo (2017); Nomadic Images, Museum of Applied Arts, Vilnius (2016). Her work is included in the permanent collections of David Roberts Art Foundation, London, Henie Onstad Art Center, Bærum, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Kistefosmuseet, Jevnaker, Moderna Museet, Stockholm and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo