Sverre Wyller
Marit Følstad
Atopian Habitat I

Curated by Ole Jørgen Ness

222T, Oslo
September 2022

Atopian Habitat volume I is a collaborative exhibition by KOSA’s Sverre Wyller and 222T’s Marit Følstad. It consists of one large painting in egg tempera (Westend #34, or Split Painting, 2017) by Wyller and a pairing of bronze sculptures (Untitled, 2022) by Følstad. Together, they comprise a direct referance to a thematic pairing KOSA and 222T undertook in their work in 2022.

“Two slowly dehydrated clay-slabs, cast in bronze, with their un-patinated surfaces showing marks of previous handling, stands to the side by the wall as a large canvas, a “Split Painting” (2017), takes center stage. Its vertical split – cold cloudy led-gray to the left, and warm paled desert-yellow to the right - compliments its horizontal landscape format. The “split” is executed with brush and egg tempera as two shivering monochrome fields greeting you as densities of psychic energy. Areas of artistic interest.”  – Ole Jørgen Ness

Wyller’s painting in Atopian Habitat is particularly significant in the context of KOSA’s ongoing project, The Placebo Studies. Split Painting was part of a large solo painting project shown in the DRK Kliniken Berlin/Westend Hospital (2018/19), dealing directly with the topic of art and medicine. It marks the first manifestation proposing placebo as a bridge from art to medicine.