Mellom mikro- og makrokosmos

Jenny-Marie Johnsen er utdannet ved Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi og vokste opp i Tromsø. I dag bor og arbeider hun i Fjordgård, hvor hun følger solens og månens bevegelser gjennom årstidene. Hennes kamerabaserte arbeider utforsker forholdet mellom ytre landskap og indre erfaringer, og har vært vist i en rekke utstillinger både nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Hun debuterte på Høstutstillingen i 2008.
 

I sitt kunstnerskap bruker Johnsen kameraet som et redskap for å se det som ellers kan være skjult for øyet – enten det befinner seg for nært eller for langt borte. Gjennom undersøkelser av naturens detaljer og sammenhenger søker hun innsikt i forbindelsene mellom mikro- og makrokosmos. Verkene hennes skaper møter mellom ulike perspektiver og skalaer, og inviterer betrakteren til å oppdage nye sammenhenger og se verden med et åpent og undrende blikk.

Between Microcosm and Macrocosm

Jenny-Marie Johnsen graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and grew up in Tromsø. She is now based in Fjordgård, where she follows the rhythms of the sun and moon through the changing seasons. Her camera-based practice explores the relationship between outer landscapes and inner worlds, and her work has been exhibited extensively in Norway and abroad. She made her debut at the The Autumn Exhibition in 2008.
 

In her artistic practice, Johnsen uses the camera as a tool for seeing what might otherwise remain hidden from the eye—whether too close or too distant to perceive. Through an ongoing exploration of the natural world, she seeks to understand the connections that bind microcosm and macrocosm. By bringing together different perspectives and scales, her work invites viewers to discover new relationships and experience the world with renewed curiosity and wonder.

Since the eighties, Jenny-Marie Johnsen has been preoccupied with visualising the often changing, enigmatic movements of cosmic colourful globes, which are moving in space. Several of them are shown in this exhibition. But first and foremost, she exhibits the monumental expressive work Cosmic Journey (2024), in which the infinite sky unfolds in all its brilliant colour splendour. The viewers feel like they are participants in the monumental, colourful artistic spectacle that unfolds in front of them. The sun and the moon are integrated in the motif in the form of a total solar eclipse. When the moon covers the sun 100%, only the ring of light around the sun, is visible. This phase lies as a layer inside the abstract motif. 

Dr. Phil Else Marie Bukdahl

Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Aalborg, Denmark