MORTEN SLETTEMEÅS:
SHOE LEATHER
JO-HS New York is pleased to present Shoe-Leather, a solo exhibition by Norwegian painter Morten Slettemeås (b. 1975).
Known for his expressive use of color and texture, Slettemeås transforms ordinary, everyday scenes into poetic and transcendent moments. His works oscillate between figuration and abstraction, layering personal experiences with echoes of art history, contemporary events, and popular culture.
In Shoe-Leather, Slettemeås turns his gaze toward the mundane, drawing attention to the fleeting gestures and overlooked details. A lone figure walking through an open landscape, trees dissolving into patches of color, or two people passing quietly in the foreground of a park—each becomes an occasion for painterly exploration. In this way, Slettemeås insists on the value of the ordinary, suggesting that meaning is not found only in the extraordinary but also in the persistence of daily encounters.
Through bold brushwork and radiant palettes, the works in this exhibition highlight the paradox at the heart of the day-to-day: its simultaneous intimacy and universality. As the familiar becomes strange and the trivial takes on monumental weight, what unfolds is a meditation on painting’s ability to elevate, transform, and reimagine our experience with the world around us.
With Shoe-Leather, Morten Slettemeås demonstrates the transformative potential of the everyday. Through his attentive depiction of the overlooked and commonplace, he reminds us of painting’s enduring power to recalibrate perception and to reveal beauty within the seemingly insignificant.
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SELECTED WORKS:
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Morten Slettemeås was born in 1975. He grew up in Gvarv in Telemark. He now lives and works in Oslo. Slettemeås is educated at Einar Granum's Art School, 1996-1998 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, 1999-2003.
Slettemeås works with painting that alternates between the figurative and the abstract, with references both to art history, contemporary events and popular culture. By using his own ideas and experiences and putting them in context with international events, the work appears as a personal story telling. Several works are inspired by the tradition of landscape painters in Telemark, combined with impulses from the globalized world.
Morten Slettemeås is considered to be a resilient colorist, with his expressive and colorful paintings, often in large format.
He has shown his works in, among others, Kunsthall Grenland, Telemark Art Museum, Bomuldfabriken in Arendal, Lillehammer Art Museum, Haugar Art Museum, Sørlandets Art Museum, Stavanger Art Museum and Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Museo di Arte Contemporanea di San Luis Potosi and il Museo de Chancelleria in Mexico. Slettemeås has been purchased by among others, Sørlandet's Art Museum, Malmø Art Museum and the Norwegian Cultural Council. In addition, he is represented in private collections in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Mexico
VISIT ARTIST’S PAGE ︎︎︎
Slettemeås works with painting that alternates between the figurative and the abstract, with references both to art history, contemporary events and popular culture. By using his own ideas and experiences and putting them in context with international events, the work appears as a personal story telling. Several works are inspired by the tradition of landscape painters in Telemark, combined with impulses from the globalized world.
Morten Slettemeås is considered to be a resilient colorist, with his expressive and colorful paintings, often in large format.
He has shown his works in, among others, Kunsthall Grenland, Telemark Art Museum, Bomuldfabriken in Arendal, Lillehammer Art Museum, Haugar Art Museum, Sørlandets Art Museum, Stavanger Art Museum and Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Museo di Arte Contemporanea di San Luis Potosi and il Museo de Chancelleria in Mexico. Slettemeås has been purchased by among others, Sørlandet's Art Museum, Malmø Art Museum and the Norwegian Cultural Council. In addition, he is represented in private collections in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Mexico
VISIT ARTIST’S PAGE ︎︎︎