Celebrating Norwegian Design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art

Benedicte Sunde answering questions after her presentation on Norwegian design. Photo: Urd Milbury

The auditorium at the Corcoran was packed, with the crowd listening to a lecture Benedicte Sunde, curator at the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture in Oslo. Sunde guided the audience through the history of Norwegian furniture design, all the way from the dragon style, which dominated Norwegian furniture in the late 1800s, to Norway Says, the designer trio that revived the country’s approach to design in the early 2000s. The curator and devoted Norwegian design advocate also mentioned some less-known aspects of Norwegian design, such as Norway’s love for pine in the 1980s, which still haunts many 25- to 30-year-olds who remember growing up in what is sometimes referred to as “pine hells.” Or as young and up-and-coming designers in Oslo once named their exhibit, “Pine in the Ass.”

Young designers

Norway.org previously did a story on one of the designers, Kristine Bjaaland. Her tablecloth “Underfull” and chair upholstery “Underskog” were two of the items featured at the Corcoran’s Gallery 31. These works exemplify both the theme of the exhibit and the dynamic but functional design popular among contemporary Norwegian industrial designers.

Bjaaland has already received praise for her design abroad, with “Underfull” being the center of attention, but the ability to exhibit her work at the Corcoran still means a lot to her: “To be able to exhibit here is an incredible opportunity to show my work in a different part of the world, a country with a different culture and of course a different market. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the U.S. after international media coverage. But being able to send my actual work is of course a lot more rewarding, and I am eager to see how Americans react to it,” she said.

A designer duo that amazed the gallery’s visitors with their “Story” lamp is Vibeke Skar and Ida Noemi. “It is an honor to present our products at Corcoran. This is the first time we exhibit the products in America, so it is very exciting to see how ‘the Story’ will be accepted in the American market. We hope the exhibition will present the uniqueness of Norwegian design that can help us to put Norwegian design on the map. We hope this can open new doors and that we can get a bigger contact network,” Skar said.

“Witty and Clever”

The curator of the exhibition, Carmel Greer, hopes that this exhibition will give the designers a gateway into the American market. “All 12 designers are young and currently practicing. Many of the objects are prototypes and not yet in production, but exhibits like this help young designers convince manufacturers to make their products,” she said.

Greer praises Norwegian design for its playfulness and functionality: “The work demonstrates an attention to detail that Norwegian design is known for, while also engaging with the user and viewer in witty and clever ways.”