Gro Thorsen’s oil paintings reflect her fascination with urban life and the constant movement of people hurrying through space. The characters are metropolitan and contemporary. Despite the
absence of surroundings in some of the paintings they lie within our understanding of contemporary cities as the figures move from picture to picture to and from in an ever crossing field.
The title ‘Pause’ is inspired by the pause button pressed for a temporary freeze frame on electronics. Thorsen collects her images by filming in capital cities, and using the stills from her films as inspiration back in her studio where she constructs compositions from several stills combined into a new image.
Miniature paintings also play a significant role in Thorsen’s work. A grid of paintings on aluminium, each just 6x6 cm, portrays people looking at art. The small scale of the paintings draws you in to the relationship between viewer and work, and invites you to identify the artists represented.
Born in Norway, based in London since 1996, Thorsen obtained her Bachelor of Art from The Wimbledon School of Art in 1999.
Thorsen has exhibited extensively with several solo exhibitions, in London at Jill George Gallery, in Norway at public galleries including No 5 Bergen Kunsthall, Galleri LNM and Hordaland
Kunstsenter. She has also had solo exhibitions in Belgium and at The Hong Kong Art Centre. Over the years Thorsen has had work exhibited at numerous art fairs and group exhibitions:
International Young Art at Sotherby’s Tel Aviv and New York; Threadneedle Art Prize; Celese Art Prize; and Høstutstillingen in Oslo, where she won the best newcomer prize. Thorsen’s work is in collections all around the world and can be found in 28 of Fidelity’s offices in Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia.
Gro Thorsen has her studio in Willesden Green, north west London.