We are proud to present Lene Ask as our newest artist! Ask (b. 1974) is a Norwegian photographer and comics and children’s book writer. Since the debut of her graphic novel Hitler, Jesus og farfar in 2006, Ask has worked extensively in the field of comics, books and illustrations.
Ask works with both documentary and fiction and has published four graphic novels, several picture books and young-adult fiction.
She sees herself as a visual storyteller, both when she draws pictures and writes novels. In her graphic novels she works with the tension between words and images.
In her latest graphic novel Dear Rikard, she tells the story of a boy who grew up in a home for missionary children in Norway while his father worked as a missionary in Madagascar for ten years. The story is based on the exchange of letters between Rikard and his father, found in Stavanger City Archive. In her drawings Ask tries to fill the gap between the letters of father and son, and present what she “reads between the lines” of their writings.
In our gallery we present original works from this book, and also drawing from a leaflet Ask made about the Norwegian poet Olaf H. Hauge and his wife to be, Bodil Cappelen. The pictures reveal Hauge´s shy personality and the fragile beauty of their relationship, in drawings of small gestures.
Lene Ask is educated at the Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books. She studied photography at Bergen Art Academy for three years, and was an exchange student as photographer at FAMU, University of Praha, Poland. In addition she studied art history at the University of Bergen, and art at Rogaland College of Art, Stavanger (NO).
Ask has published over 25 books, as author and/or illustrator. She has also published a number of articles and short stories in several anthologies. Ask is a much sought lecturer and has exhibited her works at a range of different venues.
