Press release

On Thursday 14 May 2026, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere presents Lofoten Poems – Visions from the Deep North, a solo exhibition by Yngve Henriksen curated by Alessandra Mammì, held under the patronage of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Italy.

The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday 15 May to Friday 10 July 2026.

Born and based in the Lofoten archipelago, Yngve Henriksen grounds his artistic practice in the origins and atmosphere of these lands. Like an explorer, the artist—who returned to the North after years spent in Sweden—is drawn to the power of remote places, to the Arctic horizon and frozen landscapes where nature asserts itself with an overwhelming scenic presence.

The exhibition title, Lofoten Poems – Visions from the Deep North, encapsulates a project that seeks to extend beyond a solo show by one of the most intense and accomplished painters on the contemporary Norwegian scene, offering an immersive journey through the history of his work and his world.

In the archipelago’s extreme temperatures, in the stark alternation of light and darkness that shapes the seasons, and in the disproportion between the fragile presence of human structures and the towering rock faces plunging into the sea, Henriksen’s inspiration takes form. His imaginative world is also nourished by a solid literary and musical culture, which deepens and matures his pictorial vision.

The exhibition brings together paintings of varying scale and date, drawings on paper, and more intimate works of minimal dimensions. Books, records, small mementos, trophies, notes, photographs, and notebooks are arranged in display cases alongside the artworks—like a secret wunderkammer—guiding visitors through Henriksen’s creative process. A video made with Kjell Ove Storvik follows the artist over the course of a day between his studio and the surrounding landscape, shedding light on his long relationship with these extreme environments.

Henriksen’s visual language occupies a threshold between figuration and abstraction. Through the reworking of personal impressions and experiences, the diverse processes behind his works return fragments of everyday life. The use of paint—which he deems essential to conveying an authentic human experience—allows him to imprint his present, his stories, and his memories onto the canvas.

Beyond its exhibition dimension, Lofoten Poems offers visitors a complete experience that becomes a potential platform for cultural exchange between Nordic and Mediterranean contexts. Through the gaze of one of its most perceptive inhabitants, the project addresses transnational themes such as adaptation to extreme environments, the fragility of ecosystems, memory, and the role of culture in shaping future iconographies.

The exhibition period also coincides with a number of symbolic anniversaries in the shared heritage of Italy and Norway, among them the centenary celebrations of the historic polar expeditions led by Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile.

As part of the public programme, on 15 May 2026 at 5 pm, the event Crossing Light and Darkness. Dialogues between science and art will take place at the Central Library “Guglielmo Marconi” (Room A) of the National Research Council in Rome. 
The light and darkness of the North will be explored through the research and photographic-documentary experiences of the National Research Council (CNR), in a comparison between Chiara Ripa, ecobiologist at the CNR’s Institute of Polar Sciences; Cristina Marras, expert in metaphor and philosophy researcher at the CNR’s ILIESI; and Vittorio Tulli, documentary photographer of CNR scientific expeditions, in conversation with artist Yngve Henriksen. A dialogue of words, colours, and Arctic emotions that seeks to construct an image of a shared future by fusing the deep impressions that bind human beings to nature. Research, like art, is exploration: a gaze cast far ahead, an inquiry that digs deep, a combination of observation and imagination—leading to new visions and a reconsideration of our notions of space, otherness, and the visible and invisible.


Biography

Yngve Henriksen (Svolvær, 1965) lives and works in the Lofoten Islands. He trained at the Kabelvåg School of Art and subsequently at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. He made his debut in 1990 at Galleri Boj in Stockholm and has since been an active presence on the Norwegian art scene, working primarily through solo exhibitions and public commissions.

Since 1990, Henriksen’s works have entered private, municipal, regional and public collections in Norway and Sweden. These include KORO (Norwegian national agency for art in public spaces), HM Queen Sonja Collection, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) in Oslo, Statoil (Norwegian National Oil Corporation) Art Collection, Norwegian Arts Council Collection, Arts Council of Sweden Collection, SVT (Swedish Television) Collection in Sweden, Stockholm Art Board in Sweden, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), Art Museum of Northern Norway, Gothenburg Art Board in Sweden, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Kongsbakken School Tromsø, University Hospital Tromsø, University of Northern Norway in Bodø, Bodøgaard Collection in Bodø, Northern Norway County Council Collection in Bodø, Stavanger University Hospital, The Governor’s Office in Svalbard.

Recent solo exhibitions include Svolvær Kunstforening (Svolvær, 2023), Galleri Helle Knudsen (Stockholm, 2023), Galleri Langegården (Bergen, 2022), Galleri Briskeby (Oslo, 2022), Galleri G Guddal (Rosendal, 2021) and KHÅK Kunsthall (Ålesund, 2019).

Press kit

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uebbe6tt6wmjzjztzafii/ALp5z4nU5mkdoSdnNm16Wu8?rlkey=jc0mf5qsdsdcevgmkpre6bpq9&st=lsuhpzoj&dl=0

CONTACTS

+39 06 45422960 | info@pastificiocerere.it | press@pastificiocerere.it

www.pastificiocerere.it‍ 
‍

Social Media Manager: UC studio

PRACTICAL INFORMATION


Opening: 14 May 2026 from 6 to 9 pm.

Open to the public: from 15 May to 10 July 2026.

Opening hours: Winter hours (October to May) Tuesday to Saturday from 3 to 7 pm, and Monday by appointment; Summer hours (June to September) Monday to Friday from 3 to 7 pm.

Venue: Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Via degli Ausoni 7 – Rome

Talk: Friday 15 May at 5 pm 
Sede: Central Library “Guglielmo Marconi” (Room A), CNR, Piazzale Aldo Moro 7 – Rome