Kenneth Blom is famous for his painting which depicts solitary figures in industrial and empty landscapes. Rendered in broad brushstrokes, these landscapes have a tendency to express moods and states of mind.
Blom also draws inspiration from the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen by painting complexities of the human psyche conveyed by human relationships.
The figures in his paintings are caught mid-movement, but their faces are blurred. “Their absence becomes more intrusive than their presence,” as Blom put it.

The subtle psychological tension and the latent noir atmosphere are the first things standing out while confronted with a painting by the Norvegian artist Kenneth Blom.
Strong architectural ambient emphasized by the use of diagonal lines and minimalistic design, remind the viewers of the tautness and charm typical of the constructions by Mies Van Der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and the birth of modern architecture, suspending Kenneth’s painting in a sort of time bubble, where a whole century collapse and spasm into a single present moment. 

Mysterious human figures move within Blom’s spatial compositions, appearing lead by an intense sensitivity, even when adopting a static position. The latent emotionality is underlined by the sapient alternation of abstract and figurative painting, where wild strokes alternate with a controlled flat background field, contributing to building the mystery, the inquietude, and the narrative of each painting.  The figures of Kenneth’s painting and their state of mind become sort of archetypes of the human psychological condition and existential obsessions. 

As C.G. Jung pointed out: the collective character of archetypes also manifests itself in coincidences conforming to the meaning, as if the archetype -or the collective unconscious- lived not only inside the individual himself but also on the outside, like its environment. The archetypal world is “eternal”, outside of time, and it is everywhere because in the psychic conditions there is no space. And that’s exactly what happens in Kenneth Blom’s art. We cannot recognize a typical geographic landscape, or a typical regional architecture in his paintings, as well as it is impossible to determine the ethnicity of his figures, while all ages and genders are depicted; what we can recognize is the psychological distress and the intrinsic sense of loneliness of the contemporary society. 

At the same time the radicalism of Blom’s pictorial language, revealed in the alternation of flat and sinuous forms, in the expressive deformation of the human body, in the specific choice of the color palette, and in the symbolic use of architecture, call to mind the work of some of the most significant Masters of modern and contemporary painting such as Edvard Munch, Edward Hopper and of course David Hockney, routing him deeply into the contemporary art historical context.

“Kenneth Blom is among the painters who combine abstraction and figuration. With each series tares it as a new relationship. In his most recent work, the abstraction requires even greater space, the depicted persons are only at the lower edge of the picture, persisting in gestures and glances. It is precisely from this that a special inner tension unfolds. The eye jumps back and forth between figure and space, narration and pure gestures. This opens the horizon for a highly subtle painting.”

Nicola Kuhn
Art Critic .Berliner Tagesspiegel.

Solo Exhibitions

2021Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin
2021 Paintings and sculptures by Kenneth Blom Dropsfabrikken galleri
2020. Illumination. Gallery Haaken Oslo
2020. Soloshow Gallery Birch Copenhagen. Gallery Birch.
2020. Galleri Haaken, Oslo.
2020. Galleri Guddal, Seimsfoss.
2020. Galleri Birch, Copenhagen
2019. Lyon Particule – Lyon/France
2019. Architypes. Luisa Catucci Gallery , Berlin
2019. `Intruder` New works Jason McCoy gallery, New York
2019. Gallery Dropsfabrikken Trondhjem, Norway
2018. Pekin Fine Art, Beijing
2017. Muster Meier Gallery Bern/Switzerland
2017. Pekin Fine art Hong Kong
2017. Gallery Haaken, Oslo
2016. Cumulus. Maerz contemporary Berlin
2015. Wo are you? Gallery Haaken Oslo
2014. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2013. Gallery Haaken, Oslo
2012. Studio Hugo Opdal/Moods of Norway Flø
2012. Gallery Haaken, Oslo
2011. Maerz Contemporary, Berlin
2011. Gallery Haaken, Oslo
2010. Galleri Bouhlou, Bergen
2010. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2009. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2008. Stavanger Art Society European Capital of Culture
2007. Colonnade Gallery at Sotheby’s, London
2007. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2006. Aalesunds Art Society
2005. Henie Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden
2003. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2002. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2000. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
1999. Galleri 27, Oslo
1998. Galleri 27, Oslo

Group Exhibitions

2020. `and guess what`. Group shw. Luisa Catucci gallery Berlin
2020. Art Herning-Denmark. Galleri Birch
2020. Dropsfabrikken gallery Trondheim
2016. Studio Hugo Opdal Flø/Ulstein
2014. Transformation. Serbia/Beograd-Romania/Buchuresti
2014. Rarity gallery, Greece
2013. jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2011. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2010. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2006. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2004. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
2003. Henie Onstad Art Center
2002. Galleri Haaken, Oslo
1998. Galleri Bomuldsfabrikken, Arendal
1995. Trondheim Art Society
1994. Galleri Bomuldsfabrikken, Arendal
1994. Oslo Art Society
1991. Galleri 27, Oslo

Art Fairs & Auctions

2021. Charity auction Vienna 2021 • Vienna Federation of industrialists
2020. Positions Art FAit Berlin. Luisa Catucci Gallery
2020. Art fair Art Athena. Cube Gallery Greece
2020. Art Fair Positions Berlin. Luisa Catucci Galler
2020. Art Karlsruhe. Luisa Catucci gallery
2019 Positions Berlin. Luisa Catucci gallery.
2019 Luisa Catucci gallery. Art Basel-Volta
2016 Positions Berlin -Art Fair- 2016
2015`Theater of operations` Soloshow Pèkin fine art Hong Kong