HENRIK AA. ULDALEN

Having taught himself classical portraiture, Uldalen reinterprets it through a contemporary lens, continuing his work in expressionism. The blurred gazes of the figures in his paintings serve as vessels for emotion rather than literal depictions, capturing feelings of solitude, detachment, and existential unease. In this exhibition, Uldalen evokes the shared sense of loss and separation felt by many Korean adoptees who were sent abroad since the 1950s. Through visceral gestures, dense impasto, and abstract shapes that emerge against crimson backdrops, these emotions take form. His most recent works incorporate finger painting and splattered pigments, reflecting childlike spontaneity as he revisits his early memories. The themes of the paintings shift between innocent moments like “Play” and “Hugs” and more painful reflections such as “Scar Tissue” and “Stolen.”

While continuing to explore philosophical questions and experimental techniques that have long defined his practice, LOST/FOUND reveals a more personal and emotional dimension. Rather than recreating specific memories or events, Uldalen confronts their lingering emotional traces. Painting is not just a means of creation for him, but a ritual of confrontation and a tool for inner reckoning. In Korea—a place both unfamiliar and intimately connected—he comes face to face with his own sense of loss and longing, ultimately inviting reflection on the universal question of what it means to exist.

About the Artist

Henrik Aa. Uldalen is a Korean-born, Norwegian figurative painter currently based in London. Known for his expressive brushwork and restrained compositions, his paintings often convey a dreamlike, liminal atmosphere, exploring themes such as absurdity, loneliness, alienation, and existential anxiety. Influenced by the existential philosophies of Nietzsche and Sartre, Uldalen delves into emotional and metaphysical subjects, using the human figure as a vehicle for introspective, self-referential storytelling. His identity as an adoptee and the emotions tied to being unrooted are subtly embedded in his work, particularly in recurring motifs like closed or obscured eyes. These figures seem less connected to external reality than to the inner tensions and silent struggles they embody. Uldalen has exhibited widely in cities including London, Los Angeles, and Dubai, and has also completed large-scale mural projects in Stavanger, Norway and Aberdeen, Scotland, expanding his practice into the public art sphere.