Sverre Bjertnæs – Three Paintings in Search of Their Values

The three works that form the presentation by Sverre Bjertnæs at Stockholm’s Market Art Fair are titled, in Norwegian, Den svake krona, Oljefondet, and Arbeidende kapital. When translated this means, respectively, The Weak Krone, The Oil Fund, and Working Capital. Stripped from their original context, I suspect they’re not quite as catchy as the original. However, they still display a very similar tone, a dryness that contrasts with the colors, textures, and materiality of the paintings themselves.

Formally, the paintings are immediately recognizable as Bjertnæs’s current style, his way of combining references to both abstract and figurative modernism with a special focus on a few select predecessors from Norwegian postwar painting. Painted in a selection of rich colors, layered in a way that is both dense and light at the same time, the backgrounds of the works combine a variety of different painterly techniques. There are what appear to be stenciled dots, which are the results of the artist applying bubble wrap to wet paint and then ripping it off. It sometimes reads like a printed halftone, reinforcing a tension between manual and mechanical mark-making.

Erlend Hammer


More info on this project at euklid/rusten
And about Sverre Bjertnæs

2026
eiklid/rusten presents a solo presentation of new work by Sverre Bjertnæs at Market Art Fair 2026, Stockholm. Booth 47, Magasin 9, 23–26 April. Three paintings and three limited edition wool blankets in collaboration with Røros Tweed.

Printed catalogue 42 x 26 cm

© Artworks Sverre Bjertnæs/BONO
© Text Erlend Hammer

Text/Editor: Erlend Hammer
Copy editing: Rachel Walther
Photography: Øystein Thorvaldsen
Graphic design: Halvor Bodin
Printer: TS Trykk, Oslo
Paper: Edixion Offset 300 g/m², Edixion Offset 250 g/m²

Edition 100

This blanket is woven from the motif that emerges after the first layers of paint in Sverre Bjertnæs's painting Arbeidende kapital (Working Capital). The title belongs to a series of works in which Bjertnæs explores monetary policy – how money breeds money, and the questions this raises about value, taxation and distribution. The underlying image has been translated into jacquard weave in high-quality Norwegian lambswool, produced by Røros Tweed. The blanket is released in a limited edition of 80 copies and is signed by the artist.

For sale at Grafikk Oslo