Kay Arne Kirkebø

Kay Arne Kirkebø is a Norwgian artist based in the city of Bergen. He graduated in 2014 with a MA in fine-arts from the Academy of Art and Design in Bergen. Kirkebø has since exhibited on numerous occasions both nationally and internationally, like Høstutstillingen, Tag-Team Studio (Bergen, solo), Prinz Georg – Raum für Kunst (Berlin, duo), Tegneforbundet (solo) and Tulca Visual art festival (Galway, Ireland).

In 2016 Kay Arne started a partnership with Berlin based artist Aage Langhelle, which also includes exhibiting together.

Kirkebø was one of the ten winners of the FID-PRIZE 2017. His book Walkthrough received a diploma in the open class in Grafill´s assessment of the year’s most beautiful books. Jury comment: “A fascinating universe with great detail despite a stylistic design. Based on isometric perspective, repetition and black-white contrast creates a meditative rhythm through the book. This is reinforced again by the paper’s low opacity. This insistence of expression may create optical illusions about what really is front or back, up or down, inside or outside, closed or hidden. “

WORK

Kay Arne Kirkebø´s works range from minimalistic line drawings put in motion through animation, extremely detailed isotmetric drawings depicting labyrinth-like cityscapes and interiors and more humorous pencil drawings based upon observations of his surroundings, pop-culture and his own upbringing in a small-town.

Kirkebø also uses medium of books and zines as an output for his drawings, and his book ‘Walkthrough’ tells the story of a silent protagonists travel through a sterile landscape set in an unknown future.

Kay Arne find inspiration in videogames of the 90s where the players viewpoint often was isometric (UFO, Syndikate, SimCity), as well as classic sci-fi movies and literature.

The methods of technical drawing (engineering and architecture) has also had an important influence on the way he with his drawings. Here the drawings are made up through standards and rule sets, which is something Kirkebø also imposes in his own work processes. Repetition and slowness are recurring themes, both in the artistic expression and for the work process to Kirkebø.