Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid focuses her practice on trusting her instincts, working with what she has, disregarding what people say.
Working with ideas for me is like being in an ever evolving and revolving cloud, or sea, of more or less useful debris, grabbing hold of things as you go, piecing together what might seem to fit in some way and sometimes losing things unintentionally.
Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid. Photo by Tove Lise Mossestad
Please tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to the world of art and how did you start?
I grew up in Sotra, an island on the outskirts of Bergen in Norway. There aren’t any artists in my family but I have always been encouraged and supported to follow my interests. That is why after high school I applied to the University of Bergen for a two-year programme in arts.
These years had a great impact on me. There were so many changes and it made I think about art and how to work with it. I still hear the voices of some of our teachers in the back of my head when I work. For me, these two years at Kunstkolen i Bergen (KiB) were challenging, lots of hard work with long days. But there was also development, curiosity, fellowship and friendship.
I don’t think I ever thought I would become an artist when I applied to KiB, but during the second year, I decided to apply to Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen, where I did a BA, and later on a MA in visual arts.
What is the primary role of an artist? How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work and art?
For me, being an artist is a lot about trying to communicate a personal interest through visual work. Art should be about asking questions, but at the same time not demand answers, at least not just one. It is a way of making something that is an isolated monologue in the studio-space, an interesting dialogue with an audience.
How do you deal with the conceptual difficulty and uncertainty of creating work?
I think the uncertainty of creating work is what drives me forward, being ever curious about what might happen next, but also what can be exhausting. For me the most important thing is always to work with something that has a driving force in and of its own. Almost like looking for that feeling you had when you were a kid and made fan-art. I try not to focus on the audience when I work. The motivation to work with art has to come from a personal place. If you are not interested in what you do, why should anyone else be?
From the artist’s studio. Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid.
What would you call your style?
I would say my style is mostly figurative painting and drawing. Usually I work in a series that explore the same themes.
Let’s talk about the evolution of your practice over the years. Tell us about your commitment to your current medium.
When I was still in art school I used to work in different types of medium. I have always liked to paint and draw, but for some classic art student reason, it made me think I should stay away from it, or at least not work with only that. I think I was also intimidated by the idea of “The Painting”. It carries so much history. I remember when I was in my third year of the BA, I had a tutorial with a guest teacher I really respected who asked me, “How do you relate to the history of painting?” and I just didn’t know how to answer that. I tried asking if she meant in a historical or contemporary way, references to artists I looked at, art theory and so on, but she just shrugged every time and said, “No, I don’t think you understand what I mean.” And this went on for about an hour.
It felt like a test that I somehow had failed, and that made me undeserving of working with painting. So, for a while I worked with installations, using paintings only as a part of a bigger whole. Until the beginning of the second year of my MA, a professor at my school asked me why I “hid” my paintings and why I didn’t let the paintings stand for themselves. The answer to this question was a fear of somehow being exposed as some kind of fraud. Of that I’m still a bit unsure of, but the question that had so intimidated me a year and a half ago made me question all the other sides of working with painting; the process, the presence it takes, the always ongoing visual decisions, and the actual creation. So, for my MA show I did a series of six paintings. And I have continued to paint and draw ever since.
Braulio Carrillo 4, Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid. 2017, 6 modules, each drawing 100 x 40 cm, total size: 100 x 240 cm, pencil on canvas.
Let’s talk about your career, or if you prefer artistic journey. What were your biggest learning and hiccups along the way?
I never expected life as an artist to be easy, but the first year out of art school was the hardest. I was working with a group of classmates in order to establish a new studio collective in Bergen, at the same time trying to find time to work on my own art, managing financially and getting used to all the other practical sides of being an artist. It is easy to forget, while being an art student, that you also should have learned a thing or two about writing applications, being your own accountant, figuring out how to do your tax-returns in a legal way and also being in charge of your PR. It takes time to find a balance that works for you. The exciting thing is also what is challenging about this kind of work, you never know when an opportunity calls or arrives in your email. Also getting older made me trust my instincts more, work with what I believe in and not be too concerned about other peoples’ opinions.
Lysning/Clearing, Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid. 2019, 3 modules, each painting 400 x 90 cm, total size: 400 x 270 cm, acrylic on linen canvas, oak frames, part of a public commission for Tertnes VGS. Photo: Morten Wanvik/VestlandCounty 2020.
How does your audience interact and react to your work? What are you looking for when you look at other artists’ work? Which shows, performances and experiences have shaped your own creative process?
I enjoy hearing what people have to say about my work. Of course, most people will say nice things to you, for example, at an opening, especially family and close friends, but it is always interesting to hear different types of opinions. A lot of people also ask more practical things like how long it took to make a specific work, what materials I used, who made the frames and so on. Some have told me they feel like they can escape everyday life through my work, some have said nothing and one woman once told me she thought one of my works was annoying, and bought it!
I look for different things when I look at other artists’ work. Sometimes something can make a great impression at a certain point in life, sometimes it makes me envious, sometimes it makes me talk a lot about it to colleagues and friends but hopefully it makes me think.
The first artwork I remember that really made an impression on me was when I was 17 years old and my class went to Oslo and I saw Albertine to see the Police Surgeon by Christian Krohg. I remember my first thought was, “There it is! And so much bigger than I thought it would be.” I know it doesn’t sound like a big epiphany, but I had just read the book, seen the painting, and suddenly there it was. And to see it in real life made me realise how rough the brush strokes really were, how different the colours popped, how much the horrible hag in the front annoyed me. It’s a painting from 1885-1887, and the book is from 1886, but the story is very sad. It was also the first time I experienced that something we had learned about in art history.
Several years later, when I was 25, I went to see a show by Leonard Rickard at Bergen Kunsthall. I loved his paintings. His motifs, the way he works with colours, surfaces, frames and the exhibition as a whole. I also discovered that he was in his sixties, but had been working for many years with the same motifs and themes. His insistence in continuing these drawings and paintings, regardless of trends and the market, is something I respect. There is also“nerdiness” to his work, which I like.
When I was 30 years old, I traveled to see a Peter Doig exhibition at Lousiana Museum of Modern art in Denmark. Both me and my boyfriend are fans and have been for several years. We had previously just been studying his works in books, and to see them in real life was amazing. That’s the thing about paintings… photos can only tell you so much.
Forest-echo 1,2019, 120 x 120 cm, acrylics on canvas, part of a public commission for Tertnes VGS. Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid.
Think of the biggest professional risk you have taken. What helped you take that risk?
I think the biggest risk I have taken is to be an artist in general. It is a lot of hard work with long days and long evenings. If anyone believes that life as an artist is glamorous and easy, with bags of money rolling in, they don’t know any artists. That being said, I have chosen this career and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I love the fact that it is possible for me to work with what I love.
Tell us about your studio, what kind of place is it? Could you describe your usual work day in the studio?
In 2012 several people from our MA class got together and started a new studio collective in the city centre of Bergen. It houses 14 studio spaces, some common areas, workshops and a project space that we also use for an exhibition programme. It’s in an old wooden house that has been added to over the years. It’s a bit like a labyrinth, but I love it. Usually I try to get there by nine or ten in the morning, and leave sometime after six in the evening. A goal would be to try to eat dinner at home every now and again.
Pahuma Orchid Reserve04, 2013, 126 cm x 165 cm acrylics on wood. Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid.
Artists often experience conflict between the commercial and the creative. How do you strike a balance? How does your interaction with a curator, gallery or client evolve?
Maybe this is a bit particular for Norway, or maybe even Scandinavia: we have some good grants here, and even though they’re not easy to get, if you do get one there aren’t really any guidelines attached to it. This is something I think has made a big impact on the art scene here.
There are also fewer commercial galleries and more government funded art institutions, which means that artists showing work there are not expected to sell.
The salaries are quite good, which means that if you work about 50-60% of your time, the rest you could spend in the studio. If you then also would get a grant of some sort you could possibly survive on that alone.
From the public commission for Tertnes VGS, 2019. Photo: Morten Wanvik/Vestland County 2020. Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid.
Let’s talk about your frameworks, references and process. What inspires you?
I work with topics that relate to our relationship with nature, the balance and imbalance of it. It is a huge topic to research, that includes both historical and contemporary sources of information – mystical, fictional and real to the history of gardens and parks, environmental questions about population, deforestation, conservation and so on. It is a topic that always makes me want to continue to know more, ask more, and in different ways manifest through painting and drawing.
I find inspiration in many things and different situations. A song might set a thought in motion, that might hibernate till I read an article, see a movie or a picture and everything will get going again. A conversation with a friend or a trip might create a side-track that seems interesting to follow, or that may even run parallel.
Working with ideas for me is like being in an ever evolving and revolving cloud, or sea, of more or less useful debris, grabbing hold of things as you go, piecing together what might seem to fit in some way and sometimes losing things unintentionally.
Documentation from the solo-exhibition Mylder at Kunstgarasjen, 2017, Bergen. Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid .
Are you more of a studio artist or naturally collaborative by nature? How do you feel about commissions?
I would say I’m collaborative by nature when it comes to production, curating and organising, but when it comes to my own art, I’m definitely a studio artist. I like to get isolated in my own bubble when I work. With my audiobooks playing on my headphones I can get lost for hours.
Working with commissions is for me a bit different than working for a solo show. First of all, you are working with an actual client, so you have to be willing to adapt your work to some extent. It also differs from regular studio work as it is far more difficult, if not impossible, to make changes to the work as you go.
So far, I’ve done two public commissions; one for a private company in a public parking facility in Bergen and one for a high school. With both of the commissions it was important for me that the work represented me and how I usually work.
Kakamega Forest, Contemporary artist Linda Soh Tengereid. 2015, 120 x 180 cm, acrylics and pencil on wood.
What are you working on now? What’s coming next season?
Right now, I have just recovered from working non-stop on my last public commission that took me over a year to make.
I have a solo show at a gallery outside of Bergen in the fall, at Vedholmen Gallery, and a commission for a research vessel called REV Ocean at the end of the year.
For enquiries contact – linda.soh.trengereid@gmail.com
Before you go – you might like to browse our Artist Interviews. Interviews of artists and outliers on how to be an artist. Contemporary artists on the source of their creative inspiration.