Unni Askeland

Her most significant body of work, the Munchadopsjon (Munch Adoption) series begun in 2004, reinterprets Edvard Munch's symbolist "soul paintings" from the 1890s. Rather than copying Munch, Askeland adopted his motifs and filtered them through a pop art sensibility, producing lithographs and serigraphs of works like The Scream, Madonna, Jealousy, Dance of Life, and Woman in Three Stages. The series was first shown at Blomqvist gallery in Oslo and later exhibited at Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum in Tromso. In 2008, Nasjonalmuseet acquired a group of her paintings, including large-scale works depicting Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Warhol-inflected portrait style, a purchase that generated considerable public discussion.

Beyond the Munch series, Askeland developed two major portrait projects. "Desire and Destruction" and "Big Blonde", the latter shown in New York in 2006, depicted 20th-century cultural icons including Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, and Courtney Love through photo-based serigraphy. She described the work as occupying the border between trash-art, advertisement, and pop art, with the title referring to the thin line between desire and destructive obsession. Her personal connection to American music culture ran deep; through her long-term relationship with folk musician Eric Andersen, she became part of the artistic circle around Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and Joni Mitchell in New York during the 1980s and 1990s.

Askeland's technique in printmaking is distinctive. For her serigraphs, she paints motifs directly onto transparent films, creating a separate film for each color layer. The prints are produced in Trondheim. She also works across painting, drawing, lithography, photography, and installation, and has shown work internationally in New York, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Berlin, and London. Her gallery representation has included Blomqvist in Oslo, DAIDDA, and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, where she participated in the "After Munch" exhibition in 2012. Her works are held by Nasjonalmuseet, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, and the collection of Queen Sonja of Norway.

On the secondary market, Askeland's prints appear regularly through the Norwegian auction house Fineart, which accounts for all 110 lots recorded in our database. The market is dominated by works from the Munchadopsjon series, with titles like "Munchadopsjon: Madonna" reaching 2,450 NOK and "Munchadopsjon: Sjalusi" selling for 1,450 NOK. Her celebrity portrait prints, such as "BIG BIG BIG | Bob Dylan," have reached 1,200 NOK. With 20 currently active lots and prices generally in the 1,000-2,500 NOK range, her graphic editions remain accessible to collectors entering the Nordic contemporary art market.