Håvard Homstvedt (b. 1976) lives and works in Oslo. Homstvedt received his artistic education from Yale University School of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. His paintings have been characterized by their textile-like surfaces and thoroughly treated canvases with varied materiality.
He has simultaneously worked with multifaceted sculptural expressions, surreal painted bronze busts, idiosyncratic silhouette figures and reliefs intertwined with paintings in ambitious installations. Sculptures and paintings with a crafted treatment span the gamut from ‘high’ to ‘low’ in art, and also point to his interest in finding a method of rendering felt impressions rather than reality.
Though representational, Håvard Homstvedt’s paintings and sculptures draw particular attention to texture and surface through the use of textile-inspired patterns. He is drawn to textures and the feel of handicrafts — the imprint. Often a kind of textile texture is present. From Homstvedt’s patterns, illusionistic yet ambiguous spaces and scenes emerge. In Wall (2006), a strange creature moves through a universe of stripes; in Tarp (2005), figures composed from various patterns — lace, crinkly gold, muted stripes — struggle under the weight of a coffin.
