For many travelers who come to Bergen, Norway, there is one essential stop - the Galleri Fjalar. Owned and fully operated by Kristian 'Gaahl' Espedal and managed and co-owned by Robin Jakobsen, Fjalar has been a place for unique and quite extraordinary artists to showcase their visiual expressions.
Today, July 30th, a new exhibition is ready for art enthusiasts to experience art of Erlend Erichen, Sara Miran, Anne Margrete Sjøflot, Eirik Falckner, and many more.
"It's been 25 years ago since they did these photos, and he pained this painting a year after" says Gaahl about Erlend Erichen's exhibition. " I really wanted him to bring the scythe as well as it was depicted on the Gorgoroth album".
Indeed the visual of a little girl holding the significant scythe has a story to tell, yet leaves room for the personal reflection of its meaning.
Galleri Fjalar always brings to their door significant personalities of all sorts, including photographers, tattoo artists, craft makers and so forth. This time around during the soft opening there was a small gathering of artists consisting of the exhibiting spotlights, such as Erlend Erichsen and Eirik Falckner, as well as tattoo artist and photographer Uncle Allan (known from stunning prints of Gaahl, depicted below), Gil Serna, as well as Tokyo based all around craft and art figure - Erik Bishop.
For the connoisseurs of wine, Bergen is a perfect place to find and enjoy line of wine crafted in France (Languedoc-Roussillon) by the guidance of Kristian Espedal himself, called La Sorga. The soft opening was greeted with a taste of "La Sorgaahl" red blend from Carignan and Cinsault grapes. Incredibly impressive of a taste but one very striking significance was its texture and mineral composition. Definitely something to experience.
The beautiful clay creations by Denmark based Sara Miran, were - to my opinion - one of most eye catching displays at Fjalar. Extremely intricate, fragile and delicate designs by this multidisciplinary artist are truly impressive by their spectacular precision, but also to those who pay attention, the detail of added pearls, marbeling and meticulate indentations in forms were truly magnificent.
"There is a lot of work to create such pieces from wet clay. Very precise and meticulate work, that is hard to imagine" says Gaahl about Miran's work. "Unfortunately Sara will not be able to be present here during the exhibition but it's an honor to present her pieces here. These ones here [as he points out] to me are very connected to the ocean floor. Very enticing", he says.
Aside of new exhibitions, Galleri Fjalar offers some of Gaahl's personal collection pieces for visitors to see.
Visit Galleri Fjalar at Bryggen 37, 2 Etasje, 5003 Bergen, and online (IG @gallerifjalar).
written by Lariyah Perrin