There is a corporeal presence in Hanne Friis’s works. In the objects, this presence is woven together with all the processes that have left their mark on the material, and, in the drawings, moving organic patterns create associations with the inner and outer topography of the human being. In this way, Hanne Friis’s art is driven by paradoxes. The amorphous, twisted, and tangled structures are finished, and astonishingly precise, but they are also on a path towards becoming. They radiate a greedy energy, yet at the same time they are painfully present in their own coming to be, as if they are on the verge of bursting.

Hanne Friis is considered one of the most influential Norwegian contemporary artists working with textiles today. Before specializing in textile art, Hanne Friis studied sculpture and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim between 1992 and 1996. Friis has exhibited worldwide and her works are included in several important public and private collections, including the National Museum of Art, Oslo; Haugar Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg; the National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim; the West Norway Museum of Decorative Arts and the Norwegian Parliament. Recent group exhibitions include Nice to (finally) meet you at the Seinajoki Kunsthalle, Finland in 2020, Topography at the Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand, Norway in 2019, Revelations at the Grand Palais, Paris in 2019, and Tissage Tressage at the Villa Datris Foundation in France in 2018.

Artist’s Resume