ArtistNorwegian
Andreas Engesvik
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Andreas Engesvik was born in 1970 and came to design by an unconventional route, first completing a Bachelor's degree in Art History at the University of Bergen between 1991 and 1995 before enrolling at the National College of Art and Design, where he graduated with a Master's degree in Design in 2000. That grounding in art history has remained visible throughout his practice, lending his work a historical consciousness that separates it from more purely technical approaches to industrial design.
In the year of his graduation, Engesvik co-founded Norway Says alongside Espen Voll and Torbjørn Anderssen. The studio arrived at a moment when Scandinavian design was measured primarily against the mid-century past, and Norway Says argued for a Norwegian design identity that was, in Engesvik's own words, 'a little bit freer and a little bit more poetic' than what was coming from Sweden or Denmark. Several products from the studio entered production with European manufacturers and are now considered contemporary classics of Nordic design.
Engesvik left Norway Says in 2009 and established his Oslo-based studio the following year. The practice operates across furniture, tableware, lighting, and industrial objects, always within long-term collaborative frameworks rather than one-off commissions. Key relationships have developed with Iittala, Muuto, Fogia, Asplund, FontanaArte, HAY, Georg Jensen Damask, Orrefors, and Herman Miller. This range across Scandinavian heritage brands and international manufacturers reflects a design position that values accessibility and material responsibility alongside formal quality.
Among the most discussed works from the studio is the Bollo armchair for Fogia, introduced at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2016. The chair pairs deliberately oversized upholstered cushions with a slender metal frame, playing structural weight against visual lightness in a way that became one of the defining furniture silhouettes of its period. The Bollo series has since expanded into sofas and variants, and a tenth-anniversary Stockholm Edition was released in 2026. Other notable projects include glassware for Orrefors and tableware for Iittala, where Engesvik has applied the same interest in proportion and quiet material presence.
In 2012 Engesvik was appointed Guest Professor at Konstfack, the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, a role that placed him at the centre of Scandinavian design education at a moment when the field was being substantially rethought. His awards include the Bruno Mathsson Award (Sweden, 2004), the Torsten and Wanja Soderberg Award (Sweden, 2007), the IF Product Design Award (2010), two Red Dot Awards (2012 and 2014), the Elle Decoration Norway Furniture of the Year (2013), and the Norwegian Designer of the Year title in both 2012 and 2013.
On the secondary market, Engesvik's work appears primarily at Swedish auction houses, with Stockholms Auktionsverk accounting for the largest share of the 16 lots indexed on Auctionist. Pieces appear mainly within furniture categories, particularly chairs, armchairs, and sofas. The Bollo chair is the most frequently offered work, confirming its status as the piece collectors most readily identify with his practice. Prices at Swedish auctions have been modest relative to his international profile, positioning his designs as accessible entries into Scandinavian contemporary furniture collecting.