The Norwegian artist Trygve Skogrand has worked with digitally altered self-portraits since the 1990s. In the series "The Artist as an Unknown God", photographs of the artist is manipulated to create symmetrical, iconlike figures, reminiscent of classical representations of deities. The works in the series deals with subjects like narcissism, the role of the artist and our culture's hopeless quest after perfection within. 

The Artist as an Unknown God

"The Cobblestone Gospel" is a series of collages of low-church religious art combined digitally with photos of my own everyday surroundings. By combining these symbols of well-known, safe Christianity with the photographs (that I see as symbols of materialistic modernism) new meaning arises in the meeting, inviting the viewer see both levels of reality anew.

The Cobblestone Gospel

One of the main subjects of my work is the human condition. How we puzzle together our lives and try to figure out a meaning. The series "Cabinets of Curiosities" are digital collages where I work with this, constructing small symbolic glimpses into imagined lives in virtual display cabinets.

Cabinets of Curiosities

"The Light Within" is a series of 24 digital collages where I combine symbols, textures, photos and cutouts from painting to explore the unexpressed and inexpressible: from deep, private hopes to the expression of the subconscious through dreams. I see the works as visions of one of man's deepest hopes: That one day, in some ultimate way, we will finally come home.


The Light Within

I have been working with digital art since the late 1990s, often as collage works where different layers of symbols are combined. In the "Nativity"-series, I was inspired by old religious paintings, re-interpreting the message by placing the holy characters into photographs of our own commonplace surroundings.

Nativity

"The Theatre of Shame" is a series of collages of figures created from digitally de-constructed self-portraits of the artist, inhabiting symbolic surroundings. The subject of the series is shame. Taking as a starting point Skogrand's personal experience of shame as a Christian homosexual, the artworks explores the hidden shame of society's sub-groups, that as they inherit the values of society often carries strong prejudice against them self. 

The Theatre of Shame

In the series"The Winter of Face Masks" I combine classical masterpieces from European art history with implements from the pandemic, like face masks or breathing tubes, often placing the figures into modern everyday surroundings. The classical works is used as symbols of the vulnerability of culture, civilisation – and even life itself. 

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Trygve Skogrand