Håkon Bleken
Galleri Brandstrup presents the exhibition Slik vi husker deg – Håkon Bleken, opening tomorrow, 15 January 2026 at 6 PM. The exhibition coincides with the first anniversary of the artist’s passing and will be on view until 7 February 2026.
The exhibition offers a broad perspective on Bleken’s artistic practice, bringing together works from different periods of his career, with a particular emphasis on the years in which he worked closely with Galleri Brandstrup. The works in the exhibition span primarily from the 1990s to 2024. Several of the works on view were held back by the artist and have therefore rarely been available to the public. Although some have appeared previously in institutional exhibitions, they remained part of Bleken’s private collection and have largely been absent from gallery presentations.
Educated at the National Academy of Art in Oslo, Bleken was a central figure in Norwegian art for more than four decades. His position within the national art history is firmly established, and his influence on successive generations of artists and on the public understanding of contemporary art in Norway has been considerable.
The charcoal drawings Fragments of a Dictatorship from 1971 marked a decisive turning point in Bleken’s career and are widely regarded as his artistic breakthrough. In the decades that followed, his work was characterised by a strong ethical commitment, formal independence, and a sustained engagement with political and social questions. His career was accompanied by extensive critical recognition, major exhibitions, and numerous distinctions, while he continued to develop his practice with consistency and intensity.
Bleken’s body of work defies simple categorisation. Alongside painting, he worked extensively with charcoal, collage, stained glass, graphic techniques, and book illustration. Painting nevertheless remained the core of his practice. His paintings move between tightly composed, detailed structures and more reduced, abstract expressions. Landscapes and portraits recur as key motifs, articulated through rich colour relationships and a forceful, energetic painterly language. In later years, his work increasingly incorporated elements of modernist and cubist collage, often entering into dialogue with historical imagery and long-standing cultural traditions.
Bleken is frequently described as a literary painter. His work draws on concrete, local realities, addressing contemporary Norwegian society as well as subjects closely connected to his life in Trondheim. Narrative plays an important role in his practice, and his works often convey stories of power, vulnerability, resistance, and loss. Questions of human dignity and social responsibility remain persistent themes, lending his work a continued relevance. His art revisits post-war anxieties while simultaneously engaging with the concerns of the present. Throughout his career, Bleken demonstrated a remarkable ability to renew his artistic language, linking personal experience with broader political and social contexts. The gravity of his subject matter is often counterbalanced by an evident engagement with the act of painting itself, and over time his work became increasingly expressive, marked by assured and vigorous brushwork.
Since his debut in 1951, Bleken presented solo exhibitions at many of Norway’s leading galleries and museums, including the National Gallery, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, and Henie Onstad Art Centre. His works are held in major public and private collections, among them the National Gallery, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, and Equinor. His art is also permanently installed in a number of prominent public spaces, including St. Olav Catholic Church in Trondheim, Nidaros Cathedral, Olavshallen, Statkraft, the Oslo Concert Hall, and Oslo Central Station. A documentary film focusing on Bleken’s life and work premiered at the Kosmorama Film Festival in Trondheim in 2009. He was awarded the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize in 2005, and in 2009 he was appointed Commander of the Order of St. Olav by the King of Norway.