Hanne Friis studied painting and sculpture at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (1992-96) but is best known today for her sculptural textiles. In the lecture she will describe how her artistic work continually develops in a more craft oriented direction and tell us about the underlying processes on which her artistic practice is based.

Hanne Friis (b. 1972) builds on, and challenges the textile tradition through tactile, handmade and sculptural works. Contrasts between the hideous and the beautiful, between the artificial and the natural characterize Friis' works. The textiles are sewn by hand with a complex stitching technique, giving the material a compact and sculptural expression. Organic and ornamental formations spring forth out of the sensual textile materials which vary between loose, hanging folds, and condensed sections. Recent exhibitions include Manners of Communication, Ways of Telling, Dropsfabrikken, Trondheim, Norge (2018), Spiral, Trafo Kunsthall, Asker, Norge (2018), Tissage Tressage, Foundation Villa Datris, L¿Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France (2018) The Forgetfulness is Full of Memories, MARSO Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico (2018) and re:construction, Hint Project, Aarhus, Denmark, (2017). Friis is behind a series of significant public commissions and represented by several public and private collections, including the National Museum in Oslo in 2016 and 2018. In 2019 she will have her first solo show in Maria Wettergren Gallery in Paris.