Miscellaneous Notes on Nordic Birds

The Queen Joséphine Gallery (Galleri Dronning Joséphine) is located at the Oscarshall summer palace. An exhibition of graphic art is held each summer season in cooperation with the Queen Sonja Print Award. Conceptual artist Svend-Allan Sørensen was the recipient of the award in 2014.

Queen Sonja and Mr Sørensen will both be present at the opening this evening, and this afternoon they attended a preview for members of the press.

A popular modernist

Mr Sørensen is described as follows on the Queen Sonja Print Award website:

“Svend-Allan Sørensen has been called a "popular modernist". As a graphic artist, he works in a clear tradition with nature, especially birds, as a motive. But he adds to the tradition new personal features, in both technology and content. To describe the nature and the birds is to him as important as to depict them – his work contains many words that are engraved images, words that are both humorous and everyday philosophical statements. He moves effortlessly between the established graphic techniques, celebrates the craftsmanship, but adds an ecological romance for nature that is indeed contemporary.

Svend-Allan Sørensen was born in 1975 and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Odense. He is represented at the National Arts Fund, Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, the ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus and several other Danish collections. Today he lives and works in Odense.”

Summer season at Oscarshall

Completed in 1852, the summer palace of Oscarshall was commissioned by King Oscar I and bears his name. However, Queen Joséphine was also deeply involved in the project, and the Queen Joséphine Gallery is named in her honour.

A wide array of Norwegian artists and craftsmen were used in connection with the interior decoration and furnishing of Oscarshall, and the palace is open to the public during the summer.

The 2015 main season is from 14 May to 30 August. The summer palace will then be open on weekends until 13 September. Tickets are available in the museum shop on site. There is no charge for visits to view the exhibitions at the Queen Joséphine Gallery.