The exhibition started with Martha, famously the last passenger pigeon. Her species went from being the most abundant pigeon in the world, with flocks blocking out the Sun for hours as they passed, to becoming completely extinct in only half a century.
The climate, the rapid changes in nature and the growing absence of diversity are central themes in Magnhild Opdøl’s work. She captures moments from the time we live in before they disappear into history, erased from memory. For the drawings in this exhibition, Opdøl has worked in reverse, the background is made by blackening the surface with pencil in layers, then erasing it, repeating the process to bring out the surface, a glimpse of a sky from an old photograph, a view she has never seen herself, from the border between freedom and captivity.
The sculpture, With soft steps, is cast from the shoes she used during months of walking in the forest and mountains to collect both materials and thoughts for new works. The shoes were always there, finding ground, always wet and finally stood before her as a reminder of everything they had experienced together. They had gone off the beaten track to explore the wild, or on marked trails and in company with others. The bronze shoes are a monument to the traces left and the impressions collected.
As Opdøl’s project evolves through research and experiences, it morphs and takes her in new directions. She often uses photographic imagery as a basis for drawings, often with just the main subject on an apparently neutral surface. Her highly realistic results on a macro scale stem from a fastidious micro attention to detail. This meticulous exactitude, however is all for the purpose of emotion. The work, as nature, is in constant slow-motion flux and from this she isolates both mental and physical snapshots, actualities and sensations, from fractions of time.
Bio
Magnhild Opdøl’s process develops through research and field work. Though drawing is central, she also creates through sculpture, objet trouvé and photography. Her works emerge from the interplay of collected materials and often spring from an interest in nature and its challenging future.
Magnhild Opdøl was born in Sunndal, Norway and holds a Master of Fine Art from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, in addition to studies at the Nordiska Konstskolan in Kokkola.
Recent selected solo exhibitions include; (if it’s real), Kunstgarasjen, Bergen, NO, 2025, Walking beyond the trees, Galleri Forum Box, Helsinki, FIN, 2024, Petrichor, Haugesund Billedgalleri, NO, 2023, Med mjuke steg, Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter, NO, 2023, I almost forgot, Galleri Ask, NO, 2022, (alone at last), Galleri Box, Göteborg, SE, 2021, we do not want to be us, Norsk Skogmuseum, Elverum, NO,2021, Holding my Breath, Galleri Ö, Tjøtta, NO, 2021.
Opdøl has been supported by Arts Council Norway since 2008, Møre og Romsdal County Council Art Bursary 2024-25, 2015-16, Arts Council Ireland Bursary Award 2009, 2011 and others. She is currently undertaking a residency at Konstepidemin i Gothenburg, Sweden. Her work is represented in the OPW State Art Collection, Droichead Arts Centre Collection, Chapter One Collection, Ross Lewis, Kunstmuseet BUBE, Alesund, Norway, Haugesund Billedgalleri, Norway, XL Group, Dublin, Viti Museums, Norway, Gothenburg Stads Konstenhet, Sweden, Vastra Gotalands Lans Konstsamling Sweden and private collections nationally and internationally.
Images: 01. Magnhild Opdøl, And at the end, despair, 2024, Pencil on aquarelle paper, 49. 5 x 61. 5cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
o2. Magnhild Opdøl, This is not a season, 2025, Pencil on aquarelle paper, 94.5 x 79 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Magnhild Opdøl, Detail from Mistakes and Accidents, 2025, Pencil on paper, 94.5 x 79 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
04. Magnhild Opdøl, From the series Trying to hold on so hard, 2024, Photography on 100% Twill Silk, 70 x 50 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
Instagram @magnhildopdol
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