Lillehammer Art Museum opens two new exhibitions on Saturday 24 October 2026: ‘Mette Tronvoll – FORTID/NÅTID’ (Past/Present) and ‘Jørgen Dobloug – lengsel og latter’ (Longing and Laughter). Both remain on view until 7 February 2027.
The joint opening begins at 14:00 in the museum foyer, with speeches by managing director Audun Eckhoff, senior curator Nils Ohlsen, Mette Tronvoll and Tim Simon Tilgner of the Jørgen Dobloug Estate. Places are limited and must be reserved in advance.
Tronvoll, born in 1965 and trained at Parsons School of Design in New York, is described by the museum as one of Norway’s leading photographic artists. She works slowly and in analogue, using natural light and a handheld camera, and spends long periods with the people she photographs in order to build contact and trust. The exhibition follows her from early studio portraits made in New York to series produced in many parts of the world: couples from her own circle, Inuit in Greenland, nomads in Mongolia, seaweed harvesters in Japan and people living in the harsh landscape of Svalbard.
Also included are photographs from Hidra, an island at the outer edge of Listafjorden that she returned to over several stays, recording its landscape, buildings and inhabitants as the place changes. A portrait of Queen Sonja, taken at Verdens Ende on Tjøme near her summer residence on Mågerø, has a private and intimate character. Tronvoll’s work is held by Nasjonalmuseet, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Royal Library in Copenhagen and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Jørgen Dobloug (1945–2018) studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he was the only Norwegian master student of Joseph Beuys, and he worked as an assistant to Gerhard Richter. According to the museum, no other Nordic artist stood as close to the German avant-garde of the 1970s. His painting joined Minimal Art, Colour Field painting and expressive painting with a personal, playful idiom, ranging from geometric abstraction to grotesque heads rendered in rough, gestural brushwork.
Dobloug also has strong roots in the town: his family owned Doblouggården at Storgata 42 in Lillehammer. The exhibition was made possible with support from his estate, and the museum thanks his son, Tim Simon Tilgner, for his advice and for a donation.
On Sunday 25 October, Nils Ohlsen will introduce the ideas behind the Dobloug exhibition at 12:00, followed at 13:00 by a tour of the Tronvoll exhibition led by Audun Eckhoff.
