Bio:
Tove Gunnulfsen Tømte was born in Norway. She has lived in different places (including some time living in Sweden for 15 years) during her life. She currently lives in a small town close to Oslo in Norway. She has worked creatively with various materials (including ceramics and painting) on and off for periods during her whole life. Then, 5-6 years ago she fell in love with painting again. She has been very passionate, bordering on obsessive, in making pictures using different tech-niques and materials. Most of the techniques are self-taught and are based on trying, quite a lot of failing, and then trying to discover new possibilities in the paintings. She has previously partici-pated in 7-8 exhibitions. She mainly paints using acrylics on plywood. There are many phases in the making of the picture she makes textures and structures by using cardboard, paper, plas-tics and my own secret “witches brew”. The “witches brew” that binds the different fragments will become very hard and is very durable. She likes to describe her creations as recy-cling/transformations of waste into art. The reason for her using plywood is that she uses very much water when she paints. She paints, washes, paints etc.. to achieve a certain transparen-cy/translucency in the colour/paint that will enable the viewer to see/feel the texture and struc-ture in the pictures. The pictures should also be able to be “seen” by closing your eyes and “feeling” the picture with your fingers. Most of her pictures are descriptions of social relations. The relations are both physical and metaphysical, perhaps also with a “digital” component (she believes changes in technology have changed the relations and interrelations between people and try to include this in the pictures). However, in the end the nature of the relations is “in the eyes of the beholder”. The relations can be sorrow, curiosity, powerlessness, estrangement, loneliness. She finds telling stories through her creations can be very fulfilling. She does however like to experiment with purely abstract paintings as well.

Artist Statement:
“I wish to tell stories describing social relations, stripped of religious codes, sex, ethnicity to try to reach the genuinely human. I see my pictures as a part of a dialogue with other people, wishing to touch and move them through recognition. The curiosity and excitement as to how I may be able to fill an empty canvas is my driving force. I trust the creative process to make the story of the picture along the road.”