Biography
Norwegian photographer Tom Sandberg (September 14, 1953 – February 5, 2014) is considered a pioneer within the field of photographic art. He was born in Narvik, Norway, and worked and lived in Oslo.
A master of light in the great photographic tradition, Sandberg worked exclusively with the medium of black-and-white photography, and continued all through his life to create his analogue artwork with its fine hues and tonalities in the darkroom.
A man who was always on the move with his camera, Tom Sandberg explored the surface and depth ratio in a motif to build a both ambiguous and recognisable complex visual reality, through photography as a language of perception.
Retrieving his modest, yet majestic images within the photographic classical genres such as clouds, people on the street, the female nude, airplanes and landscapes, but also abstract subject matter, Sandberg’s remarkable poetic vision is imbued with a strong sense of presence and mystery.
Reknown also for his large-scale prints on various media such as aluminium sheets and canvas, and evocative portraits of the likes of John Cage and Krzysztof Penderecki, Sandberg’s images have the capacity to render an experience of seeing the world anew.
In the early 1970s, Sandberg studied photography at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, England, where Thomas Joshua Cooper, Paul Hill and Minor White where among his teachers. His early work was one of the first acquisitions of photography by The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, and he paved the way for photography within the art-world in Norway.
Sandberg’s international recognition had its peak with the solo exhibition at MoMa PS1, New York, in 2007. His work is found in a number of museums as well as public and private collections, such as the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Bob Nickas in The Act of Seeing (With One’s Own Eyes), P.S.1/MoMA, New York, 2007:
«Tom Sandberg’s is a world where life is always in the balance; we are in it, but only in passing. We can experience an intense connection to it, and share it with one another, and at the same time be awed by how insignificant we are in relation to its vastness. We all understand how, in an instant, the camera automatically fixes a person in time, and yet in affirming our very being photography also evidences our mortality, the fleeting nature of life.»
«Sandberg is a master of tone, an artist who modulates the pitch, the subtlety, and the intensity of his pictures. The blacks in Sandberg’s work are as dark as coal or the obsidian of volcanic glass; whites can be as milky as alabaster or as translucent as frosted glass. Through his finely-tuned modulation of light, mood and psychology come very much into play. Sandberg’s is a darker, more downbeat sensibility, readily calling to mind the soulful quality we identify with Peter Hujar, another artist for whom a sense of mortality is ever-present.»
Carlo McCormick, Aperture magazine, fall 2007:
«Sandberg has a very careful and dedicated way of looking that is by normative experience quite uncanny. In the inventory of his work, we might be hard pressed to find anything we haven’t had a look at before; and yet everywhere he puts his lens he renders the unmistakable sense that we are now seeing in a way that we usually don’t.»
«Sandberg’s art is not a product of experience; it is a process of experiencing. His choice of subject is inherently eclectic—sometimes immensely vast, sometimes intimately small; the real drama is a visual dialogue on the nature of perception. The language—honed by craft—is very much about photography.»
«Sandberg’s gift involves a remarkable capacity to imbue the quotidian with psychological gravitas. He is, in that great photographic tradition, a master of light: it is everything that plays here, that exposes and subsumes, that articulates and ultimately falls back into the shadows of what remains unsaid in Sandberg’s art.»
Mirjam Thomann, The Whole of Life, Life’s Detail. On the Photographs of Tom Sandberg, Bethanien Künstlerhaus, Berlin, 2007:
«In Sandberg’s approach journalistic photography is shifted into a realm where it no longer suggests an objective perspective on events but where genre-inherent fragmentation and ephemerality become the very conditions of the aesthetic experience of the photographic image. ... Just as Sandberg practices a form of reporting that lies between a ‘before’ and ‘after’, at the fringes of events, spectators are given the possibility to move around in these interstices whose single elements, deprived of a beginning or end, can be rearranged and expanded.»
Gary Michael Dault, Ved grensen av et fravær, in Tom Sandberg – Photography, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, 2000:
«I Sandberg’s skybilder, såvel som i hans øvrige verk – forekommer det ingen fastholdelse av tilskueren, ingen påtvungen følelse av sammenheng, ingen symbolisme, ingen fortelling. Hans fotografier unnviker eller motarbeider tilskuerens (til tider desperate) identifiserende, speilende dragninger og følelser av tvang... Sjelden ser man hos Sandberg en sentral fotografisk hendelse (på tross av Marie), snarere finnes det rett og slett et grenseområde omkring et slags myldrende, febrilt fravær, det er ingenting å se, og plutselig kan man se alt mulig.»
CV
TOM SANDBERG
1953 - 2014 Born in Narvik, Norway
Lived and worked in Oslo, Norway, and Paris, France.
EDUCATION
1973 - 76 Studies with Thomas J. Cooper, Paul Hill, Minor White and John Blakemore at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, UK
Derby College of Art and Technology, Derby, UK
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Tom Sandberg, Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2015 Diptyk/Tom Sandberg, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO
2014 Photographs, OSL Contemporary, Oslo, NO
2011 Uten tittel - 2004-2010, Oslo Central Station, Oslo, NO
2011 Nyere Arbeider – Fotografi, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Lillehammer, NO
2010 Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2010 Galleri OSL Contemporary, Oslo, NO
2009 Galleri Trafo, Asker, NO
2007 Kivik Start, Kivik Art Center, SE, Pavillions with Snøhetta Architects
2007 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE
2007 Tom Sandberg: Photographs 1989 – 2006, MoMa PS1, New York, US
2007 Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2007 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
2006 Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, FI
2005 The Festival of North Norway, Festival artist of the year, NO
2004 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
2003 Galleri Nordenhake, Stockholm, SE
2002 Galleri Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2001 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
2000 The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO
1998 Galleri Sølvberget, Stavanger, NO
1998 Gothaer Kunstforum, Cologne, (with Per Inge Bjørlo) DE
1998 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
1997 Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, (with Per Inge Bjørlo) NO
1995 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
1994 Galleri Sølvberget, Stavanger, NO
1993 Fotogalleriet, Oslo, NO
1989 Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
1987 Bergens Kunstforening, NO
1986 Image Gallerie, Århus, DK
1985 Henie - Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO
1984 Galerie du Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, BE
1984 Galerie Junod, Lausanne, FR
1980 Fotogalleriet, Oslo, NO
1979 Photographs from “ExPosition” - Maricio Kagel, Incram Centre
1979 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR
1979 Galleri Annen Etasje, Haugesund, NO
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 10 years old, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena, IT
2016 Slow Pictures – Contemporary photography, Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, NO
2015 Contemporary Photography form North-West Europe. Tom Sandberg. Around Myself, Foro Boario,
Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena, IT
2015 From Vision Machines to Instagram, Preus Museum, Horten, NO
2014 Crossroads. Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, NO
2012 I Wish This Was A Song. Music in Contemporary Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Oslo, NO
2012 Paintings – Face to Face – Works from the Collection of the Kuntsi Foundation and the Swanljung Collection,
Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, Vaasa, FI
2011 Erling Neby Collection, Heine Onstad Art Centre, Høvikodden, NO
2011 Works of Art from the Vexi Salmi Collection, Rauma Art Museum, Rauma, FI
2010 Thrice upon a time – Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, SE
2010 Bloody Serious, Bergen Art Museum, Bergen, NO
2009 Works on paper, Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2009 Spellbound m. Daniel Burén, Monaco
2009 Latte in Watte, Galleri Riis, Oslo, NO
2009 Reality Revisited, Moderna Museet i Stockholm, SE
2008 Tom Sandberg/Stefano Casciani, Galleria Artra, Milan, IT
2007 People Take Pictures of each other..., Lamontagne Gallery, Boston, US
2007 Birds, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe
2007 Nordeas Art Collection, Henie Onstad Art Centre, Høvikodden, NO
2007 Modern Norwegian Art Photography, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, NO
2007 Private. Living with Contemporary Art, Galleri F15, Moss, NO
2006 Summer, Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, DK
2006 Astrup Fearnley Collection – Photo and Video, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO
2004 Nordic Images, Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid, ES
2003 Ronce noire, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, BE
2003 Focus – 160 years of Photography, Bergen Art Museum, Bergen, NO
2002 Ronce noire, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, FR
2001 Å bygge en samling- samlingens vekst, Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, NO
2001 Monotypien – Radierungen – Photogravuren, Niels Borch jensen Galerie & Verlag, Berlin, DE
2000 2000 words: musings on the medium, TPW-Toronto Photographers Workshop, Toronto, CA
2000 Photogravüre, Niels Borch jensen Galerie & Verlag, Berlin, DE
1999 80/90 Mirrors of our Time – Works from the collection of the Oslo National Museum,
CAC-Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, Vilnius, LT
1998 Norske Profiler, Museum Folkwagn, Essen; Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, DE
1998 Fönster mot Gården, curated by Sune Nordgren, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, SE
1994 Norfotart, Museum of Contemporary Art, Warsawa, PO
1993 Sandberg / Nils Aas - Portretter, Villa Fridheim, Krøderen, NO
1993 Posisjoner I, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, NO
1993 Statens Kunstutstilling, invited, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO
1993 Verden Er, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Lillehammer, NO; Hasssel-bladsenteret, Göteborg, SE;
Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, DK
1991 Sandberg / Serck-Hanssen - Splint, Kunstneres Hus, Oslo, NO
1987 Simulo, Norwegian Contemporary Photography, Oslo, NO
1987 Ten Norwegian Photographers, Norge´87, Göteborg, SE; Austin, TX, US
1986 Skandinavisk fotografi, The Museum of Art, Düsseldorf, DE
1985 Dialogue on Contemporary Art, The Gulbekian Museum, Lisboa, PT
1984 Eksponert, Fotogalleriet / UKS, Oslo, NO
1984 Zeitgenössische Europäische Fotografie, Schaffhausen, CH
1984 La Photographie Créative, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, FR
1984 Deuxième Triennale de Photographie, Galerie du Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, BE
1982 Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia, Caserta, IT
1982 Nio norske fotografer, Camera Obscura, Stockholm, SE
1982 The Frozen Image, Scandinavia Today; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; International Center of Photography,
New York, US; Fredrick S. Wright Gallery, University of California, L.A.US, Portland Art Museum; The Museum
of Contemporary Art, Chicago, US; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington, US; Kjarvalsstadir,
Reykjavik, IS; Taidehalli, Helsinki, FI; Fotografiska Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE;
Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO
1981 Northern Lights, The Photographic Gallery, Cardiff, UK
1981 Norsk Samtidsfotografi, Robert Meyer Samlinger, Reykjavik, IS
1979 Fotografi her og nå, Henie - Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO
1979 Sandberg / Parslow, Ibsenhuset, Skien, NO
1978 Tusen och en Bild, Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm, SE
1978 Statens Kunstutstilling, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
1977 Sandberg / Parslow, Henie - Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
- Bærum Kommunale Kunstsamlinger, Sandvika, NO
- Fotografiska Museet / Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE
- Galerie du Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, BE
- Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, NO
- Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthall, SE
- Det Kgl. Bibliotek, Copenhagen, DK
- Ministry of Culture, Paris, FR
- The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, NO
- Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, DE
- The Norwegian Art Council, NO
- Norsk Museum for Fotografi, Preus Fotomuseum, Horten, NO
- Rasmus Meyer Collections, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, NO
- The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO
- Oslo Municipality’s Art Collection, Oslo, NO
AWARDS
2010 Anders Jahre’s Culture Award