Sometimes absence is more potent than presence. It can evoke a longing, but also be eye opening in the sense that one suddenly might notice something previously ignored. In Thomas Tveter’s pastels the absence of human figures is conspicuous. Intersecting landscapes and interiors, we are met by motives of furniture and artifacts in gardens and forests. The fusion of the organic and the artificial appears seemless, but none the less absurd, and thus reveals our human-oriented world view.
Tveter’s landscapes are surreal, without completely surrendering to the fantastical. In this manner they kindle a sort of magic realism, where the borders of the real and unreal are blurred, or even eroded. Are we observing traces of human life? Or are we presented to a posthuman universe – what’s left of something that has ceased to exist? In a wide sense Tveter’s poetic pastels are inviting to a reflection of the human role in the world; if we even have any role beyond occupying space that might as well be inhabited by someone else.
Thomas Tveter (b. 1972) is a Norwegian artist that lives and works in Oslo. He has a MFA in painting from the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (Now: Oslo National Academy of the Arts). Tveter has exhibited his work in several group exhibitions, such as Høstutstillingen. His work is in the collection of Oslo Municipality and the Central Norwegian Regional Health Authority of Mid-Norway, as well as several private collections.